Susan
by Kelly Riker
Summary: The Colonel Sheppard won't take no for an answer, especially where his daughters are concerned. Not to mention a certain SIC military Major has eye on the Colonel's daughter, but frat rules get in the way once more. Will this slightly different military base ever be normal and figure out what's wrong with the galaxy? Second in the Daughters of Atlantis series.
1. New Beginnings

_A/N: For all the folks that are reading this, Susan is the companion to Flanna, the first book in the Daughters of Atlantis. Susan starts almost a year after Flanna ends._

_**Chapter one**_

_**New Beginnings**_

John Sheppard shook his head, his hand reaching up to tap the headset on his ear. Every year it had been the same since Cyntha and Bridget made Atlantis their home.

"Sheppard to Carter-" He talked, pulling out the golden circlet, Bridget had given him so she wouldn't loose or damage the only gift from her mother. Setting the circlet down, he dug further and gently picked up a silver chain. On the chain hung a pendent that was like a star with elegant strands coming off it and winding around themselves around the small diamond in the very center. It looked fragile yet tough, a combination John knew fit his daughter Susan Teryl perfectly.

The last thing he pulled from the drawer was a satchel. It was brown and looked like it had seen better days, the leather deeply gouged in spots. Setting it on the table, he put the necklace and circlet back so that they'd be safe. He didn't know why the Ascended woman calling herself Linda had given them to his daughters, but John Sheppard knew it had something to do with fate, therefore not thinking about it too hard.

"Carter, Bridget will wake up soon, I suggest you tell all of Atlantis to be on their toes. It's that time of year again." He told the base commander, knowing how Bridget loved this day with a passion.

"It's April the First already?!" Sam asked, pulling up her desk calender up.

_**SGA**_

Bridget awoke, instantly looking at the clock beside her bed. Jumping up, she grinned like it was Christmas morning. "April Fools Day, the jokes on you!" She cried, getting dressed as quickly as possible.

She ran past Cyntha who was sitting down at the long couch, John had gotten when he needed to get bigger quarters. Cyntha looked up in surprise as Bridget came out of her bedroom like her hair was on fire. She noticed the look in her eyes and silently groaned, for it was Fool's day once more.

Bridget ran through the halls of Atlantis, heading towards her dad's office, knowing the drill after last year's April First. The Atlantis personnel that she passed,stared after the Colonel's youngest, wondering why she was acting so excited.

Entering John's office, Bridget fidgeted, waiting for her dad to look up from his laptop and notice her.

Finally, John looked up, smiling at how Bridget was trying to stand patiently, but she didn't get it down. "You want your satchel, don't you, Bird?" He asked, leaning back with his hands on top his head.

"Yes sir." She told him, trying to stand in one place but utterly failing. "Our bargain was that on April Fool's day, I can have my bag of things for one day and do all the pranks I want as long as they aren't harmful or dangerous to myself or others." Bridget quoted, hands behind her back.

"Just make sure you keep to those rules, young lady." John warned her, handing over the most dreaded bag in Atlantis.


	2. Pranks, Pranks, andmore pranks

_**Chapter Two**_

_**Pranks, Pranks, and you gessed it, more Pranks.**_

_A/N; And I guess every one liked how the first chapter for Susan went, well I hope they did, anyway. I wanted a fun chapter to start this story off, and Bridget was yelling in my ear to put her in the first chapter. I guess I better shut up and let you read now,_

Laura Cadman stood infront of the transporters aboard the Deadalus, waiting to beam down the new troops. She knew what the newbies, as the Atlanteans were so fond of calling them, would be amazed when they caught their first glisp of Atlantis. Her commanding officer, Steven Caldwell had beamed down earlier to finialize things with the Base commander.

Half an hour later, the Colonel beamed aboard covered in pink glitter. Laura raised an eyebrow despertly trying not to laugh. It was a loosing battle for the Lieuentant that's for sure.

"Sir?" She asked, trying not to laugh. Her eyebrow was raised in a questioning look, while the Colonel shook himself like a wet dog to get the glitter off him.

"No laughing." The Colonel grumbed something about darn Sheppards while he left the room. Pink glitter marking a trail.

Several minutes later, Colonel Caldwell radioed the transporter room, informing Lieutenant Laura Cadman to beam down the awaiting recruits.

_SGA_

Being one of the last ones to transfer over, Cadman beamed right into another prank aboard Atlantis. Cocking her head, Laura listened as a faint ticking sound could be heard, but looking around, she couldn't catch sight of something that would make a sound like that. A couple seconds later, she found out what that ticking noise was when a lot of people started to scream and jump a foot of the ground. A mechanical mouse was what everyone was screaming about. Once it was picked up and everyone could see that it wasn't real, Laura heard someone laughing. Looking around herself, she saw a young girl, around fifteen or sixteen, wearing a leather satchel and doubled over in laughter.

The thing that startled Cadman the most was the way her hair was very similar to that of Colonel Sheppard's messy black hair. She had met the Colonel many times on her first tour over here but never knew he had a daughter. Of course the first trip over here had gone a little crazy do to the whole conciousness in Rodney's body thing.

Filing the image of the young teenager away, Cadman grabbed her duffle bag and went ot find her old quarters.

_SGA_

Susan watched silently as Bridget played trick after trick on the other personnel. She knew this might be one of the last times that she could be able to enjoy playing with her sisters, but she couldn't bring herself to stop being the viewer and actually go help Bridget rig up some pretty cool jokes. Her bags were packed and she was ready to go back to Earth the only things not completed was telling her sisters why she wasn't staying. The oldest Sheppard girl couldn't bring herself to track down Aiden and explain to her best friend why she was leaving.

Ever since she had found and brought the young Air Force officer back to Atlantis, the two of them had become best of friends. She knew who could watch her back and Ford knew she would always have his. So it came as an understatment that she was a little afraid to tell him why she was going back to Earth.

The only one who actually knew about that was her father and he was the one that pulled strings to get her back to Earth. Just being a pilot wasn't what Susan wanted in life, she also wanted to be able to do Black Operations, the coolest of the cool in other words.

_SGA_

Bridget walked down a hallwy, planning her next prank or as some of the Atlanteans started to call them, attacks. If she had been watching where she was going, Bridget would've seen the woman but she wasn't.

A kind woman's voice broke into her thoughts. "So you're what's all the fuss is about."

Looking up, Bridget noticed that the woman had hazel colored laughing eyes with redish orange-ish hair. Her skin was paler than that of Bridget's.

"If you're talking about all the pranks going off in the city, it's the only day in the year that I'm allowed to do them. Are you one of the new recruits?" she asked, forgetting about the next prank and putting her whole attention on the unknown woman.

"Yeah, my name is Laura Cadman. This is my second tour of duty stationed at Atlantis." She slung her duffle back on her shoulder and walked down the hallway, Bridget at her side.

"So YOU'RE the one McKay was yelling about the other day! Name's Bridget Sheppard." Bridget messed with the strap of her satchel, sliding it up and down.

"So I still give the man the nightmares, can't say that I blame him though. I was in his head for a couple days." Laura rounded a corner still talking with the young girl. "So what brings you to Atlantis, you're a little young to be in the military, don't ya think?"

Bridget laughed at her last remark, causing Laura to look at her. "You could say in a way the military brought me here. My dad's the miltary commander of the base. My mom is an ascended being."

"Hmm... well that explains why Colonel Caldwell came back covered in pink glitter ranting about the way your dad runs Atlantis. He was not happy about that, let me tell you."

"I had intented that one for Colonel Carter, didn't mean to get the Colonel of the Daedalus."

Smiling, Laura gestured between the two of them. "Just between the two of us, it was pretty funny."

SGA

Cyntha pulled out a long wooden box from underneath her bed. The wood was polished oak and it gleamed like fields of wheat ready to be harvested. Undoing the latch on the front of it, Cyntha lifted the lid of the box, revealing two polished swords laying side by side. Cyntha gathered her wild hair and tied it together with a scarf, before lifting out one of the swords with a hand on the hilt and another on the blade, feeling the perfect balance of the weapon.

She unsheathed the weapon, swinging the blade around with her left hand, the only sound you could hear was the sound of her weapon slicing through air in the empty room.

Grinning, Cyntha re-sheathed her weapon and picked up the other one, going through the same motions as before.

Sheathing both of her blades, she set them gently inside of the box once more, caressing the hilts with light fingers. A sad sort of a smile replaced the happy one she had when swinging the blades around, as she closed the lid and latched it once more. Her siblings thought she never got a gift from her mother, but she got the best gift of all, knowedge of how to use the swords that her mother intrusted her with.

In Atlantis, there was no one to play fight with swords anymore, not since Janet had left them on that planet so that they could be brought to the correct Atlantis. She missed the days of being able to fight with Dakota O'Neill every morning before their offical training would begin. Janet had caught them once or twice, but everytime she did, she smiled knowing how not only war would bind the future protectors but play would also.

She highly doubted that she had remembered anything, but she had no opportunities to find out.

_A/N: Second chapter is a little short, I wanted to get the stage set in a matter of speaking. I'm still brainstorming about what I want to do in this story, so if ya have any ideas, more than happy to throw them in the pot. Many Cooks make the soup just right in my Review and I'll be back soon with the next chapters. :)_


	3. Family are many things

**Chapter Three**

**Family are many things**

_A/N: Thank you thewolf74 for the ideas and the encouragemnet, I think I know what's going to happen now. _

Flanna trudged through a foot of mud, heading towards the stargate. She was in a horrible mood and the cold, damp, freezing rain wasn't helping matters any. Whoever said that family was a piece of heaven had clearly never met her family.

She knew it was bound to happen, but why did it have to happen now? Flanna cursed the day her mother ever had her half brother, Weyin. He was worse than a pesky thorn in her side. Not only did he question her right to lead the Satedan people, but when he knew that the people woulde choose her over him, his father had to come up with a cold-blooded idea to wipe her whole family from exstance.

Now the Dex family, which had been the grandest ever and the most loyal to Satedan, only surived because of Ronon and Flanna Dex. The last of their lineage.

She punched in the coordents to take her to the way-station of the Atlanteans, scowling even further as her hair hung wettley down her back and causing water to drip underneath her collar. Pressing the last piece that would engage the stargate, the gate horizon spit forth a man that Flanna had no desire to talk with or even to be related to...her half brother, Weyin Tallen.

"If it isn't my dear older sister Flanna." His voice reminded Flanna of honey coated horse droppings. Smooth and desireable looking, but take a bite, and it was the worst thing you ever had. She scowled darkly at the man, who was a little taller than her but shorter than Ronon.

"Weyin, come back for another round of getting your face pushed into the mud?" She asked, hatefully glaring at the man.

"Now, now dear sister, mustn't let one's temper get in the way." He abmoshiled her, shaking his finger at the mud covered woman before him. "I've come to ask for your help."

Hearing that Weyin wanted her help, made Flanna laugh harder than she had ever laughed before. Once she stopped laughing, she weezed out, still doubled over from laughing. "Really... What's if for? Trying to finish the job your father started, Weyin? Or is it to take on the only Dex left to fight for what she believes in?"

"Neither. I need your help finding the lost talisment of Eachann. Without it Sateda is in peril of being wiped out by Wraith." Weyin sounded the closet thing to genuine that Flanna had ever heard from the man.

"That Talismen belongs to the descendants of Eachann not a person that was his arch enemy's descendant." Flanna growled at the man, the words clipped and weyin heard the wrath of Flanna in her voice. Flanna reached behind her to pull her swords out and finish Weyin off, but he pulled a sword and fought her.

"I need that talismen to save my people, sister." He ernastly told her, blocking both of Flanna's swords. His arm viberated with the powerful blow she had given him.

"From what? Fraid another Queen will be able to controll MY people like sheep if you don't have it?" She taunted him as blow after blow she dealt him, driving him ever backwards. "Let me tell you something, _dear brother_, the only thing you're leaving this planet with is your life."

"Come, come now sister, can't we talk about this like civalized folk?" He asked, walking backwards up the stargate's steps.

"I am NOT your sister! Don't ever call me that again, Tallen. My family is dead becase my _mother_ wanted power above the love my father gave her." She spat outt he words like something vile had been in her mouth, causing Weyin's almost bored look to be replaced with rage.

"You are my sister, and I never wanted your family to be related to me no matter what." He spat while changing tackets and forcing Flanna back down the steps.

They fought like Eachann and the Wraith Queen did, only this time it was deadler. Generations of hate and anger spilled fourth from their blades, drowning out any noise that could've been heard before. Flanna all but forgot about the reason she had been going to the Alterra civilation, she fouced all of that burnign hate and anger from what happened to her family and the years of running from Wraith and channeled it at this man. A man that caused all the happiness in her life to be destroyed becase of the whims of his father.

Finally she knocked his blade out of his hand and had her two swords crossed in an X at Weyin's throat. Hissing out a message, Flanna pushed him lower until he was bended over backwards. "Never, NEVER ask me to give you an inheratince from my anscetors, Tallen. They were given to me to protect from you, and if I find you trying to get them, I will...kill...you." Her words sounded less like a warning to Weyin's ears than a promise.

He nodded his head, backing as far away from her deadly sharp blades as it was possible.

"Good." Flanna smiled a feral grin that would've been right at home on a wolf's face. She sheathed both of her weapons, turned and stomped away to dial in the coordents that would take her to Atlantis.

_SGA_

Ronon watched as his little sister came through the stargate, covered in mud and in the foulest mood he had ever seen her in. Her look dared anyone to talk to her and face the coniquences.

Several minutes later, Ronon walked into the gym as Flanna sent another marine to the infirmary in the past minute and a half. If he had been looking in the dark corners, Ronon would've seen Cyntha watching Flanna fight, but he didn't. He walked towards his siter knowing full well if they fought it would be him getting his rear end pounded into the ground by his little sister once more. Fighting was how the Dex siblings ranted their rage, letting go of the anger and focusing on the simple movments. All thought was gone and instinct took over, causing the issue that they were upset about come to a better light or understanding. It was how Flanna finally got her brother to propose to his wife, Amelia.

Flanna thought Amelia Fitted her warrior brother better than that woman he kept company with on Sateda. What was her name.. It was like malena, mealana, something like that. Flanna didn't care much for the woman, thought she was too soft and gentle for her brother, no the woman that would capture his heart and keep it would be a warrior yet a mother. So Flanna approved greatly when Ronon asked her if he should ask Amelia Banks to be his wife.

_SGA_

Cyntha watched as her sister's best friend fought with Ronon. The weapon of the day was bantos rods,Ronon wasn't feeling up to the fact his little sister would use a weapon and break it over his head if they had used staffs, instead. Watching as they used the two wooden rods against each other it reminded her of using her two swords only in ballet.

She came out of the dark corner as Ronon was knocked to his butt for the twentith time in a couple hours. Seeing the young Sheppard almost appear our of nowhere, startled the two siblings, drawing their attention else where.

"How long have you been there, young one?" Flanna asked, withdrawing her weapons.

Cyntha shrugged, gesturing towards the forgotten pair of sticks, asking Ronon. "May I?"

Ronon raised both of his eyebrows, forgetting for a moment that this was Cyntha Rose Sheppard, the only person that everyone knew less about than they did about him. Since arriving at Atlantis a year ago with her younger sister, Cyntha had almost been forgotten except on rare occasions that she didn't hide in the shadows watching. Always watching was the ways of Cyntha Rose.

"You know how to use these?" He asked, looking at the smooth rods between her hands. She gripped them differently than Flanna and he did, but he supposed it was because she wasn't as familiar with using them as they did.

"I may use them differently than you, but my skill might just be as great. I did after all fight with Cora and Dakota for several years." She told him, self adsuringly.

"Go easy on her." He told his sister, pulling himself up from the ground and walking to sit beneath a window.

Grinning Flanna twirled her bantos rods around in her hands, never breaking eye contact with her much younger opponet. Cyntha swirled her's a different way, using the rods like she would her swords, cutting the air with the swishing sounds of her movements. Giving no warning what so ever, Flanna attacked Cyntha trying to force the younger woman backwards.

Cyntha had thought she might use this tacket, making Flanna believe that she had the upper hand. Cyntha let Flanna push her backwards several paces before using one of the bantos to block and the other to go under Flanna's, hitting her on her bended knee. Flanna wasn't expecting the entirely different way Cyntha used her weapons, it was all foregin to her so she culdn't come back with a good offensive move.

Several minutes later, and Flanna was still confused by the way Cyntha knew how to use her bantos rods. She was using good tackets, never letting Flanna hit her and yet Flanna was here left with no knowedge on how to combat this new way to fight. It wasn't just hack and slash as most people would use a blade or a stick, it was elegant and refined as bantos fighting but in it's own way. How could her people have fought and trained with these rods and never come up with these moves, she asked herself, blocking yet another of Cyntha's thrusts.

SGA

Susan knew that she had to say goodbye to her sisters in the next hour and a half. But knowing how close she had gotten to her baby sister, Susan knew Bridget would loose some of that specialness that made her the fun loving free spirited girl. She didn't want that to ever happen to her sister, so she tried to come up with a way that'll keep Bridget the same.

Susan didn't know how Cyntha take the news but she was sure of one thing, never let Cyntha get ahold of something that'll destroy things when she's angry.

Standing in the 'gate room half and hour later, Susan had said her goodbyes to her sisters. As the stargate engaged the wormhole to Earth, Susan heard Cyntha and Bridget yelling from the balcony above and behind her. They were yelling at her not to leave them.

Turning, Susan set down her bag just in time to catch a flying Bridget throwing herself in her arms to stop her from leaving. A vew seconds later, Cyntha joined the group.

"Hey, what's all this?" Susan asked, lifting Bridget's face and wiping her tear-stained cheeks.

"You can't just leave, Susie." Bridget's warm brown eyes looked upwards, fearfully begging her sister not to leave. "What's so great about Earth anyway compared to home?"

Susan smiled down at her youngest sister, "I promised I'll be back, Bird. Come now, Red, I am only leaving so I can complete some Black Operations training." She called them by their nicknames for probably the last time in a long time.

"What kind of BlackOps will you be training for?" Bridget asked, not bothering to notice their father coming down the stairs behind them.

"Search and Rescue missions. How about this, You can come to Earth and stay with me until the Daedalus arrives and picks up guys up. That'll give us about three weeks of just us girls."

Lowering her voice, Susan contiuned, "And knowing how the malls are abundent here in the Pegasus galaxy, you guys need to come get a couple things while you stay with me."

John crossed his arms smiling knowingly, knowing how the three of his girls were. Once they got something stuck in their heads, it would take something worse than a natural disaster to change their minds. "I want you two back on the next Daedalus run, young ladies."

Cyntha and Bridget looked bacwards at their dad, their eyes asking him if he was really serious. John laughed, pulling the three of them into a hug. "Now go have fun." Stepping backwards, he watched as three young women walked out of Atlantis, wondering what his life would've been like without having learned about them.

_SGA_

Laura walked into Rodney's lab, wanting to know how he had been. Just because that dart incident, Laura had been trying extra hard not to let Rodney get to her. He was a man without many friends and she had made it one of her duties to actually be nice and a friend to the man. Spotting the man hunched over a computer, she grinned before knocking on the doorjam.

"Guess who's back for another year?" She asked, walking over to the man.

Rodney jolted out of his little world, hearing the voice of the one person that he wanted nothing to do with. Laura Cadman had seen literally past the aragant, complaining Rodney and saw a lonely man. A man that tried to burry himself under work and all the complaints so that he wouldn't relize just how alone the man was.

"You." Rodney guessed, putting down the tablet that he was holding and taking in fully the exstant of Laura. "Come to torment me for a year this time?" he asked, "Or was getting out of my head was a lonely for ya?"

"Rodney, you don't have to play games with me. I know what and excatly who you are." Laura told him, leaning a hip against the Ancient table.

_A/N: We have Sisters going on a holiday together, Cadman and McKay are already arguing like an old married couple, Flanna is always getting the short end of the stick isn't she? Those Dexes are one stubborn family, I can give you that much. Please Review and I'll be back with a chapter soon. _


	4. A holiday for the three of them

**Chapter Four**

**A holiday for the three of them**

_A/N: Since I have an outline done for this story, my frequency of posting depends on the amount of homework I have and how fast I can type chapters up._

Walter sat behind the bank of computers in the control room for the SGC Gateroom. A cup of cooling coffee sat next the the keyboard all but forgotten in front of him. Alarms broke through the quiet room, startling Walter out of his chair.

Tapping furiously, Walter waited for the GDO so that he could lower the Iris. Recognizing Atlantis' code, he lowered the Iris as Lieutenant Turner and two unknown teenager girls came through the stargate.

Walter turned to the General, but he had already gone down to greet their visitors.

_**SGA**_

General O'Neill watched as Lieutenant Susan Turner-Sheppard walked down the ramp. Beside her walked two teenage girls, that Jack was sure had never been through the Earth Stargate or Daedalus.

Seeing the confused look on the General's face, Susie decided to introduce him to her sisters. "General O'Neill, may I introduce my sisters, Bridget and Cyntha Sheppard." She told him nodding at each sister on either side of her.

Jack's face was priceless after hearing that Sheppard had two more daughters. He watched as the three females walked out of the room, laughing about who knows what.

Turning to Walter, who was standing beside him, Jack asked. "Did that really just happen? Colonel Sheppard has two younger girls?"

Sargent Walter Harriman watched the red head between the two dark haired ones. Cyntha's arm was thrown over her sister Bridget's shoulders, while both laughed really loud about something. "Apparently he does, sir. They seem real enough." He told the general, hands behind his back.

"When was real enough ever seemed right, Walter?" Jack asked, as the three women disappeared from view.

_**SGA**_

"You should have seen the look on his face!" Bridget laughed, remembering the way the General looked when he found out that Sheppard had three daughters and they just came from Atlantis.

"you know the drill, you two. Lets hit the Infirmary so that we can be cleared to go off base." Susan tried to control her two sisters, after getting several curious looks from the base personnel in the halls.

"That'll take ages." Bridget told her, complaining good naturally while the three changed headings to go to the lions' den. "What can we do while they do all their tests and stuff?"

Cyntha finally spoke, a sly grin starting to form on her face. "We haven't tried out the gym yet. I'm sure Cheyenne has some really good fighters here."

Bridget looked sideways at her sister. "Whatever you're thinking, I like the way where you're going."

Susan smiled, watching how her sisters bantered and joked, making the time spent with each other even more sweet. "How about once we get out of the infirmary, we go top-side and hit Soda Springs? I want you to meet someone."

"What's Soda Springs? And meet who?" Bridget turned her attention to her sister, confusion shining in both of her siblings eyes.

Smiling, Susan remembered about Soda Springs, telling her sisters. "Soda Springs is where I grew up. The family that adopted me when I was ten live there, I want you to meet my adopted brother."

Both Cyntha and Bridget stopped walking and stared at their sister together, speaking in perfect synch. "YOU have a brother and you didn't tell US?!"

Realizing that they said it together, they turned to each other, "Jinx! You owe me."

Susan raised her arms, "Enough! Yes, I have a brother, I had three before two of them died in Iraq. That's why my adopted parents wanted me to be in gymnastics, but I went against their wishes and joined the military instead. Until the day I learned that they had died, I had never forgiven them for trying to protect me. I always felt I had a common bond with my brother, Aaron."

"So we get to go with you, right?" Cyntha asked, stopping her sister outside of the Infirmary doors.

"Of course, he's the only one left from my old family, I want him to meet my new one." Susie smiled, grabbing Cyntha and rubbing her head with her knuckles.

"Not the hair! Do you know how hard it is to keep my hair straight?" Cyntha complained, good naturally pushing her sister's hands away.

_**SGA**_

Flanna watched as Sheppard stood in front of the gate. She knew he was finding it hard to have let all three of his daughters travel to Earth without him. He had never been away from them for two days ever since Atlantis had those mirror universe copies of themselves. She knew that Rodney, Ronon, Sheppard, and herself needed to do something together without anyone else, have a team night.

Appearing beside the Colonel, Flanna smiled. "Colonel, I know the perfect thing for you to do while the girls are away."

"Hey Flan." John told her, never taking his eyes off the gate. "What do you have in mind?"

"The fight for the throne is coming, Colonel and nothing will stop Weyin." Flanna spoke knowing if she was ever to save the galaxy, she couldn't be just Flanna Dex.

"That's your brother, right?" John asked, moving towards the mess hall, so he could listen to her while he ate.

"HALF brother. He's only my brother because my mother left my dad." Flanna told him, putting a great emphasis on half.

"What do you have in mind, Flan?" He asked, sitting down at one of the balcony tables.

"The only way we can stop him is to awaken the ancestors." Flanna told him, knowing that they had to find the one calling herself Linda.

"You really don't have a clue, do you?" John asked, right as Ronon walked up.

"Colonel, I have spent my whole life asking myself 'why me?' and you want to know what I finally came up with?" Flanna leaned in close, lowering her voice so that only the three of them could hear. "I learned that it's not only my duty as a Dex but that the Ancestors knew I can do this and restore Sateda to it's former glory."

Several minutes later, Flanna stood infront of the DHD, punching in the coords to take them to the home of the Ancestors, the former front lines to the Wraith/Lantean war.

Seeing that the stargate engaged, Flanna walked down the stairs to stand beside her team, her family, her friends. Looking at each of them, from Rodney who was blabbering to Ronon, who was twirling his gun, Flanna smiled, knowing that she wouldn't have it any other way.

Entering the Building, Flanna looked around herself, looking for something that would give her a clue as to why she was given these coords.

"So excatly what are we looking for?" Rodney asked, pulling out his always present tablet.

Flanna grimanced, starting to move rubble where the center pillar would have stood. "Anything that looks like it was meant to be found." Giving the largest piece a giant push it rolled off revealing an undamaged crown. The crown was resting inside of an energy barrier, similar to the force fields on Atlantis, it wasn't flashy nor bedazzled with precious jewels, yet Flanna knew that this was the crown for the Riders of Rohan. The Valkyrie claimed that they were intrusted with the gods' weapons and that one of them was the crown of Jarnsaxa.

"The crown of Jarnsaxa?" Flanna whispered, pulling the elegant crown out from beneath the rubble. "Do you know how long this has been missing?" She wondered aloud, bringing the crown up s that she could see it in a better light.

"That's what we came out here for?! A metal hair thing?" Rodney exclaimed, finally getting a good enough look at the crown.

"Not just any hair thing, McKay. This is the Crown of Jarnsaxa, the seventh ruler of the Riders of Rohan. She was bethrothed to supreme Commander Thor before she died in battle. The Asgard were deeply upset when they heard about her death at the hands of the Wraith and Gou'ald." Flanna told him, wrapping the artifact in a scarf of her's, continuing her tale. "It is said that when you find the crown of Jarnsaxa, it means you are the next leader for Atlantis and Olympus. Not just anyone can claim that they are Chiefton of Sateda without this crown. What Weyin calls the lost talisman of Eachann, I call the Crown of Jarnsaxa. Without it, he doesn't stand a chance of controlling my people."

Suddenly three very bright lights made an appearance in the middle of the group. When it had died down enough so that Sheppard, Dexes and McKay uncovered their eyes, there stood Linda with two children by her side. If Flanna had to guess, she would have pegged the children at about a year older than Bridget, so about sixteen or so.

"Linda." John stated her name as a fact.

"Hello again, dear husband." Rodney hearing that Sheppard was married to the Anscended woman, mouthed the words 'He REALLY is Kirk.' after his jaw hit the floor.

"This is Conan, son of Ronon Dex." Linda pointed out the teenage boy beside her, before turning to the blond haired girl. "And this is Cora, daughter of Amelia Dex. The time for the greatest of sacrifices is almost upon you, Colonel. Make the most of the time that you have, for your time is drawing nearer." Turning to the stunned Flanna, Linda continued. "And Flanna Maria, you have proven to us many times that you are willing to fight the Wraith, but are you willing to become what you were destined to fully be? In time you will have to choose a path, young one, and when you do all of the Universe and even us, the Ascended beings will be affected by it."

Smiling, Linda took the long forgotten crown from Flanna, and gently settling it on her head, saying. "The items of your ancestors will take you on the the journey, protect them at all costs, young one for they will save your life." Turning to Ronon, Linda said one final thing before disappearing in a white flash of light. "Ronon Dex, your path may have been tough up to this point, but they were only tests getting you ready to raise the master of all Tests. Choose wisely for it will hinge on many things that will save or destroy not only this galaxy but all of them as well."

"Are you really married to her?!" Rodney was the first to speak, once Linda had disappeared.

Sighing, John answered his question, gazing at the newest arrivals. "Yes Rodney. I met Linda about a year ago when Cyntha was captured when you left your experiment going. She rescued all of our butts and made the girls pick a choice, stay with me or continue on through the universes looking for a place to settle down in."

Clearing her throat, Cora spoke up for the first time since arriving. "So what's going to happen to my brother and I?" She leaned her head towards her brother, who looked exactly like Ronon, minus the beard and very dangerous energy pistol.

Ronon looked helplessly at his sister, shrugging his shoulders. Flanna sighed, pulling the crown off her head and looking at it. "I guess that one falls to me. You will be coming home with us that's for sure."

_A/N: Well what do you know? Another set of teenagers arrive in Atlantis. And Linda popped up again, spouting words no one will understand for a long bit. Rodney got to call Sheppard Kirk, Ronon didn't get to kick butt, and Flanna, girl you really need to start to understand what you were destined for because frankly your family is driving you bonkers. Next chapter: maybe during the weekend, depends on homework and that kind of stuff._


	5. Meeting Family

**Chapter Five**

**Meeting Family**

_A/N: Well what do you think? Two chapters in one week, that's gotta be record._

Susan stepped out of the black SUV that the military had given her sisters and herself a ride in. They were parked in front of an old ransacked farmhouse on the outskirts of Soda Springs, Idaho. It hadn't taken long for them to get from Wyoming to Idaho by taking a private jet that the President had loaned them, after finding out that the three sisters were almost single-handed responsible for keeping the Wraith away from Earth.

The old farm house had peeling white paint and the porch railing looked like it had broken years ago, but Susan smiled with fond memories for this was the place that she had grew up in. Taking a deep breath she looked at her two sisters, before walking up the rickety steps and knocking on the thick oak front door. Waiting for a moment, she smiled at her two sisters.

The door opened to reveal a man that looked to be native American. His eyes shown with confusion but was replaced with surprised joy when he recognized his sister. "Susan Teryl, what the hell are you doing here?" he asked, pulling his little sister inside. His voice was laughing while asking the question.

Susan smiled, tugging him to a stop. "Aaron, I would like to introduce you to my real sisters, Cyntha and Bridget." she waved her free hand at each girl beside her.

"You really did find your real family after all." Aaron told her, nodding his head at the girls that were as different as night and day. "Is that why you never called or sent me mail for three years?"

Susan smiled sadly, "I didn't call or send mail because I was posted in a remote area with no power and the fly-bys weren't as clockwork as they led you to believe."

Aaron frowned at his baby sister, knowing that she wasn't telling him something important. "It's classified isn't it?"

Bridget smiled suddenly at that. "You know, Susie, I think I like your brother already." Cyntha immediately elbowed her in the side, earning herself a black look in return.

Aaron broke into a big belly laugh while watching the two sisters. "Well they both act like you when you were younger that's for sure." He motioned for them to come inside and sit down in the living room. "Make yourselves at home, we'll be right back."

Susan had a surprised look on her face, while her brother tugged her into the kitchen and out of hearing of her sisters.

As soon as the door was shut, Aaron turned to his little sister and crossed his arms. "Talk now. What have you been up to in three years that I get mum from everyone in the Air Force about?"

Susan smiled, trying to buy some time to make up a good story. "You know, just a little of this and a little of that." Seeing that he wasn't buying it, she finally gave up. "I'm really not supposed to tell you, Aaron. It's against the regulations and it's under the highest classification there is."

"Fine if you can't tell me what you do, tell me how you found those sisters of yours. Mom and Dad had only said that you came from one of those million dollar families that flashed their money around like it was lint in your pocket."

Susan started her tale once they sat down at the old dust covered kitchen table. "Mom and Dad weren't exactly correct in that, you know right. I was stationed at the Antarctica flying scientists around, when Colonel Sheppard came by looking for me. Claimed that he had an opening for a test pilot and that I was what he was looking for. He had read my record about that incident about five years ago in Iraq and didn't care. When I asked him about that, he only said that sometimes we know we have to go against orders to save someone, it was a trait that said I could think on my toes and that's what he was looking for."

"Hmm, you have me intrigued little sister, continue." Aaron told her, setting a cup of coffee in front of her.

"Around the same time that I was proposed with that offer, the Colonel also told me that he was my real father. Had the blood work done and it turned out positive so I accepted, trying to get to know him a little better. I still work under my dad's command, but two years ago a woman that was trying to help us rescue her children came to the Colonel and told him that they were also his children that were kidnapped, so we tried to release them. We only succeeded with Linda's help. She gave up her freedom so that Cyntha and Bridget could be free. Dad thought is was best if he continued raising them."

"Well that explains the sisters, but that doesn't cover the point that mom and dad said that your father was a billionaire playboy." Aaron told her, refilling their cups of coffee once more.

"Turns out Dad just wanted to be a pilot and let my grandfather and uncle be utilities moguls. Never know what is going on with that side of the family anymore nor do they know anything about my sisters and I."

"What about your real mom? What happened to her?" Aaron asked, giving Susan a one armed hug. He knew this was the first time that she had actually sat down and told somebody her full story.

"Eh. Don't know, Nancy divorced dad in 2004. Dad said that she was the one that gave me up while he was over seas, if he had known I guarantee that he wouldn't have let Nancy give me to the Adoption agency."

"Hey, little sister, you're alright. Look on the bright side, if Nancy hadn't done that then you wouldn't have made life hell for us boys when mom and dad brought you home from the hospital." Aaron told her, letting Susan lean on him, while remembering all the fights that the three of them had gotten in trying to protect their baby sister.

"Yeah, Jessie and Reed were always trying to keep the boys away from me." Susan said, smiling sadly. "Think you can get to know my sisters while I go talk with the boys?" She asked.

"Sure, go right ahead. You know where they're at." Aaron knew what she was talking about.

"Thanks." She told him, standing up and grabbing a six pack of beer from the fridge.

"Leave a beer for me will ya?" Aaron asked, watching is little sister get some of her spirit back.

"You don't need it." Susan stuck her tongue out at her brother, while heading out to the pasture.

**SGA**

Cyntha turned around, taking in the living room while they waited for Susan and Aaron. Most of the walls were covered in various trophies while a couch and and a couple of armchairs were scattered around the room. Bridget had immediately sat down on the couch, raising up a cloud of dust. Leave it to her little sister to be able to find out the dirt on anybody. Spotting a trophy above the mantel, Cyntha peered at it closer, not being able to read the words through the layers of dust on it.

She pulled it down and rubbed some of the dust off, reading the plaque out loud. "Bridget, listen to this. Awarded to Susan Turner, 1st place winner for the National Gymnastics competition of her age group."

"So, we knew that she was in Gymnastics before leaving for boot camp. If I remember correctly, you even have a couple ribbons for your sword fighting." Bridget told her, pulling out a book from her satchel.

"Yeah, but I didn't win first place for the Nationals." Cyntha pointed out, watching as Bridget got comfy with a book. "What are you reading now?"

"The last book in the Inheritance trilogy. I'm on page 600." Bridget told her, not looking up.

"Didn't you like start that a day ago?" Cyntha, put the trophy back while asking her sister.

"More like 10 hours ago, but who's counting?" Bridget corrected.

**SGA**

Aaron watched Bridget and Cyntha before walking all the way into the living room. He was surprised about the fact that Bridget had finished 600 pages in about ten hours, not many people he knew could read that fast. He wasn't so surprised about the sword fighting that Cyntha was talking about, figured it came from the same genes that made Susan good at gymnastics. No body in his family was that good, but Jessie and Reed had gotten out of the hardest sports by taking up rodeo. Well they had before they were killed in Iraq when Susan was about Bridget's age.

"Did you guys already have lunch yet?" Aaron asked, putting his shoulder on the doorjamb.

Cyntha spun around, startled as heck, while Bridget smiled into her book. Not many people could get a reaction like that from Cyntha. 'Course, somebody once compared her to a coiled cheetah waiting for the kill, so that it could pounce.

"Where's Susie?" Cyntha asked him warily.

"In the Back forty, She wanted to talk with the rest of our family." Aaron told her, pointing his thumb behind himself.

Suddenly a bright light came into the Living-room, startling Bridget into falling off the couch and the others into covering their eyes. When it had died down, Bridget picked herself up while Aaron was staring open mouthed at the woman that replaced the light.

"Are you an Angel?" He asked in a whisper voice. Cyntha looked at him like he was crazy, watching as Bridget dusted herself off.

"Mom!" Bridget told the woman.

"Sorry about that Bird, but this is important. If you and your sisters do not go home now, Atlantis is about to have a crusade that will test the balance of the whole Galaxy. Flanna does not know if she will have to give up everything that she holds dear to save her people."

"Galaxy? Flanna? Atlantis?! What the Hell do you guys do for a living?!" Aaron asked, pulling himself together. "And I thought Susan said that your mom was a prisoner of war."

"Would you believe me when I tell you that mom is actually an angel or white buffalo woman?" Bridget asked, pulling something oddly shaped from her bag.

"White buffalo woman?" Aaron asked, looking at her strangely.

"Wrong tribe. It's classified, sorry about this." She told him, pointing a zat at the man. Firing it, she dropped Aaron onto the floor. "Red, we are so in trouble when Susie finds out what I did."

"No, actually you will, not me." Cyntha told her, gathering up their gear and turning to their mom. "So why did you do the whole showy light thing?"

"I hate to make your vacation short, Atlantis will need your help. Cyntha, the prophecy that you found three days ago. I need it, child."

"Righhht. Mom what's really going on?" Cyntha told her mother, crossing her arms.

"The Others know of what Dr. Fraiser and I are about to do and are trying to stop us. The Prophecy needs to be reveled to Flanna Dex. She will know what it means." Linda turned into the Light wisp with tentacles once more, extending her light to include her daughters.

**SGA**

Susie opened the back door to the house, noticing it was deathly quiet. Looking around the kitchen, she couldn't spot anything so Susan walked into the Living-room.

Seeing that her brother was on the ground by the door, she hurried over to him. "Aaron? Aaron!" She asked, shaking his shoulder.

"Susan?" He asked, opening his eyes. Groaning, Aaron sat up with Susan's help, leaning his back against the wall. "What the hell was that?" He asked, shuddering.

"What was what? And where are my sisters?" Susan asked, pulling out her handgun that she kept on in her jacket.

"Bright light came and turned into a woman. Think she took the girls. I didn't see anything after Bridget shot me with an electrical something or other." Aaron told her, pulling himself off the floor.

"I knew I should have checked that bag of Bridget's. What you got hit with is a little similar to a Taser. The woman was my step-mom, Linda. If she showed up, somethings desperately wrong at the base." Susan looked around herself, spotting the open book, laying face down on the couch. "Will you be alright by yourself?"

Aaron stood all the way up, swaying before he shook the rest of the electrical charge off. "I'm coming with you."

"Aaron, it's top secret. And this involves my family, not yours." Susan told him, pulling out a cell phone from another pocket on her cargo pants.

"Your family is my family. I seem to remember you saying those words to me once." Aaron told her, watching as she talked.

"Fine, Daedalus two to pick up." Susan gave up trying to get Aaron to sit this one through.

_A/N: Well the sisters just never get to be able to take a holiday do they? Looks like Flanna is going to have to make up a choice pretty soon. And is this Dr. Fraiser the same one that worked in SGC? You will find out next chapter folks, because these questions and more will be answered soon enough!_


	6. The rightful heir

**Chapter Six**

**The rightful Heir**

_A/N: Well what do we know? It's that time of day again._

Flanna walked through the halls of Atlantis, Ronon and his two kids beside her. She had tried to explain things to Colonel Carter, but she had told her that they had bigger fish to fry and the kids could stay if Amelia and Ronon had no complaints. Both parents had welcomed Cora and Conan with open arms, while Flanna saw that Atlantis was made battle worthy. Colonel Sheppard had been in Carter's office for a good long while as both leaders tried to find the enemy's weakness. Flanna had tried to tell them the only way to defeat Weyin was to find a way to jam the subspace recievors that were on Wraith Runners.

SGA

John ran his fingers through his hair for about the thousandth time time in less than an hour. It would have been a lot easier to find Weyin's weakness if Susan hadn't been on vacation. She had a nack for being able to surprise and overcome an enemy with superior numbers.

"Colonel, you won't find anything. Satedans are highly known for their fighting. I think we need to listen to Flanna on this one." John was interrupted by Linda's bright light.

Spotting Bridget and Cyntha, he raised an eyebrow. John had quickly gotten used to Linda popping up at the most unexpected times but why were his two youngest not on Vacation anymore.

Linda spoke before anyone could get over being startled. "Cyntha, the prophecy." Her tone was urgent, something the Atlanteans had never heard from her.

"Here," Cyntha pulled a folded piece of lined paper out of a pocket, unfolding it before handing it to her father. "I copied it from the last set of ruins we visited."

Taking a look at it, Sheppard started to read out loud. "A time will come that the last great ruler of the Alterra will have to take her place and battle her greatest of enemies, restoring her people to their former glory. Her people once blind and numerous follow a different ruler, while she found a loyal, battle scared people that made her their ruler."

Linda watched as John lowered the page only having read half of it. "That's not all what it says, husband."

John gave her a look, handing the woman the page. "Have you tried to decipher Red's handwriting when she's in a hurry?"

Cyntha smiled sheepishly, taking the page. "That might have been about the time that rogue Dart came by. Give me sec."

The others watched patently as she found where her dad had stopped reading. "Okay, the rest of this basically says what and who she rules over. Oh, here's a good part!

"The Queen of the Alterra, ascended and Lantean alike is of the line that fells our greatest of enemies, the Wraith." Cyntha stopped reading, comprehension forming in Bridget's eyes.

"This," Bird looked over Red's shoulder, "this is talking about Flanna isn't it?"

"Holy Hannah!" Sam exclaimed, grasping what the others were saying. "This is not going to be an easy report, that's for sure."

Linda's image started to flicker, making her family give her concerned looks. "The Others are trying to stop me. I have dwealt in this galaxy for far too long. Complete the Coronation quickly before-" She yelled at her daughters, holding a hand up to John's in goodbye.

Once she was completely gone, Bridget looked at her father concerned. "Do you think she'll be okay, Dad?"

John swallowed his own concerns and answered his little girl. "She carries the Sheppard name, sweetheart, I think she'll give them more than just hell."

SGA

Susan and Aaron were beamed aboard the Daedalus, Colonel Caldwell stood up, asking. "Lieutenant Sheppard who is this man?"

Susan looked at Aaron, who was looking about himself in amazement. "Colonel, Aaron is the only one that knows anything that can help us find my sisters."

"AS long as we contact General O'Neill about this. I hate to be the one that tells the IOA about this little escapade."

"Fine as long as we hurry. I'm worried about my sisters. Sheppards tend to attract trouble wherever they go."

SGA

Flanna watched as the stargate activated. She knew her duty, but didn't believe she could complete it. With the shield in place, no one could get through to Atlantis, but that didn't stop radio signals.

"This is the Atlantean Supreme Commander Tallen. You will release Atlantis t it's rightful owner." Weyin's voice could be heard in the gateroom. Flanna growled quietly, knowing it was time for her to either choose to fight Weyin and save her people or let him walk in and be hunted for the rest of her life. If Weyin ever found out about Cora and Conan, their lives would become forfit along with Ronon's, Amelia's, Solen's, and her's. Flanna knew that Weyin would hunt anyone that sided with her, blood kin or not and kill them to assure the Throne was his.

She hurried to stand next to Carter, willing herself not to show her hatrid. "Weyin, have you gone and lost it finally or are you just being sucidale today?" She asked, grabbing her own radio.

"Ah.. Dear Sister, I didn't realize that you already blindfolded these people to run the city for your diabolical needs." Flanna got even more tense when Weyin claimed that she had imprisoned these people and ruled.

"Weyin, I demand the right of Ascension." She spoke loudly so that all of her people and Weyin's could hear her. Ronon was on the last step when he heard her.

"Why would you do that, dear sister? The throne is mine, there is no questioning what the Elders have said." Tallen laughed, but it didn't sound like he was so sure of himself anymore.

"You need more than just the approval of the Elders to become the ruler, Weyin. Have you forgotten our ways so quickly after you have enslaved my people?"

"The right of Ascension was stopped being used many generations ago, Flanna. They are worthless to the people of Sateda." Weyin barked back, not seeing the trap that Flanna had laid in place.

"The old ways were only given up because we stopped following the wisdom of our Ancestors, Weyin. You cannot become Ruler without their acceptance. The time of the Great awakening is upon us and the Ancestors have told us many times that only the one that holds the crown of Jarnsaxa and the sword of Dex is destined to be Ruler. I know on good authority that you have none of those. The Asgard will not accept anyone that is not of the line of Jarnsaxa. You know this as well as I do, Weyin Tallen."

"Fine, you can have your right of Ascension but only after the Test of Eachann is performed, I hate to give the people a ruler that is unworthy." Flanna saw clearly that her half brother was baiting her for a reaction that would show his people that she was an unfit ruler.

"The second nightfall of the third moon on Sateda is when I will meet you for the test and Ascension, Weyin." Flanna told him, shutting off the com-link once and for all, not even waiting for a reply from Weyin.


	7. The ones loyal to her

**Chapter Seven**

**The ones loyal to her**

_A/N: Here is the chapter that most of you have been waiting for since almost the beginning of Flanna. The question now is will Flanna take the right path and lead her people or let their call die on deaf ears? Well I only have one suggestion for that one, read on dear reader._

General O'Neill scowled as the Daedalus beamed him aboard without notice. Spotting Liuentant Sheppard, he as the man beside her with confusion. "Liuentant Sheppard thought you were on Vacation for the next week or so before reporting for Training."

"My sisters are missing, General. The last thing on my mind is vacation." Nodding her head towards Aaron, she continued. "We need to get my brother to sign the non-discloser and confidental agreement. He is the only one that knows what has happened."

"What's your name, son?" Jack asked, knowing how Sheppard won't stop until her sisters were found.

"Second Seargant Aaron Turner, sir. Retired." Aaron told him, snapping off a salute.

**SGA**

Flanna looked around herself, comitting what the city and it's inhabitants looked like to memory, knowing she might not be able to see it again. She had tried to go by herself but everyone, even the Fluffed up Ego Doctor Rodney McKay wouldn't have let her do it. She could understand why her brother and his family tried to stop her but almost everyone had told her in more ways than one that they had her back, knowing she was going through with the Test of Eachann and Ascension. Not even bothering to talk her out of it.

They didn't say it in words so much, over the last several weeks, while Flanna had been training for the test of Eachann, they always had a word of encouragement on their tongue ready to lend her a helping hand. No one knew what the Test of Eachann was, for it hadn't been used in seven generations. Before she was sopposed to he at the Royal House on Sateda, she wanted to check on the Ancient Ruins first.

It was a place where Runners could seek shelter since the Transmitters couldn't work once you stepped through the gate.

**SGA**

Flanna headed towards the tall buildings that represented the Ancient town of Euphrates. A young boy around ten or Eleven met them at the edge of the forest. "Flanna! You have returned!" He cried out in happiness recongizing Flanna instantly. "Come! Melina will want to see you."

Flanna walked into the Ancient town, greeting the women, children, and men there all by name. She laughed, congraulated, wept, comforted with each of them. The people there loved her, that much John and the others could see.

The boy that greeted them earlier, appeared before them once more. This time helping an old woman down the steps to stand before Flanna and the three men.

"Thank you Gaavin." She said before turning her attention to Flanna. "Welcome back, our Leader. You have been sorely missed." Melina was half bent over, supported by a cane that was carved elegantly curved around carvings.

"Melina, how many times do I have to tell you, that I am no Leader of the Runners. I only found a sacuary for all of us, that hardly qualifies me as a leader." Flanna told her respectfully.

"You are our Leader, Flanna Dex of the Line of Eachann. You found us a place to rest our heads and grow old, protected us like we where children of Runners will have no other Leader." Melina spoke, struggling to stand up straight like in her youth. "But that is not why you have come back is it?"

"No it is not. Weyin Tallen has called forth the Test of Eachann after I have requested the Right of Ansciension. I need your people's help, Melina if I am to pass it." Flanna told her, asking not demanding help from those around her.

"Why do you ask, Leader? We would have surely have done it if you have just told us instead." Melina gripped on hand on her cane the other sweeping the other around herself as she walked through the streets. "Don't you see that we are willing to die for you, Leader? You had put yourself in great danger bringing us here, sharing this city at the risk of drawing the Wraith here permantly. You are our leader in more ways than just the fact that we look for you to guide us."

Melina walked several miles before halting before some children playing. "You brought Celise to safety after the Runner who had saved her couldn't protect her anymore. You did this, not Caci of Rohan, not Parie. You, Flanna did this."

"Seems to me that you are stuck being their leader." John spoke, noticing many things how Flanna and her people interacted with each other.

"I will take my place as your Leader, Melina. But first I have to defeat Weyin Tallen, he plans to cause the Great Awakening in several years if I do not stop him." Flanna told her, finally realizing that the Runners were stuck with her as much as she was stuck being their leader.

"News of this happening has already started to rech our ears, Leader. The more Wraith awaken, the more the Runners are not able to live and find sacuary. We will follow you to the Queen herself if need be to stop this from happening." Melina told her, standing as tall as she could make her old bones and tendons to.

"Than this is how we need to enter the Satedan Royal courtyard." Flanna gathered her people to her and told them what she had in mind. A few suggestions and points made, Flanna and the Runners had a plan in place. Now they just needed to be able to remove all of the trackers from each person.

**SGA**

It was day break on Sateda, the sun had already begun to creep up the walls of the Chieftons' palace, highlighting the woman that stood on the crest of the hill at the entrance of the gate. You couldn't see any of her features yet, but the very air it self was resonating with the thought that this was Aife, first Queen of the Satedan people and wife to King Eachann.

The woman wore a simple floor-length grown, her arms bare to the sky, a crown that looked like armor with a majestic blue jewel laying on her forehead. Her russet colored long curly hair flew behind her, no longer confined of anything except a gold colored clip with blue saffires on it. The gown that she wore was of a cream color and had off the shoulder sleeves, simple floor length, figure hugging with a a net like fabric that was held onto her waist by a belt studded with a simple jewel. She had a sword hanging by her leg. Many Satedan recoginzed this sword and the crown of Jarnsaxa.

Two rows of woman followed by a drummer each walked down the hill first, tapping out a rhythm on their drums. As the two lines made a walkway to the center of the courtyard, the mysterious woman walked elegantly down from the hill, by this time the sun had only risen half way up from the hill, shining it's rays of golden light onto the woman's russet colored hair turning each strand into a halo of fire ontop her head. The skirt of her dress trailed behind her, creating a cloud of cream colored fabric in her wake.

John, Rodney, and almost every male in the courtyard dropped their jaws until they hit the ground at the beauty before them. The Atlanteans were all amazed that this was Flanna, a woman that they knew couldn't be brought within five feet of a dress without killing it, yet here she was wearing a dress and making it look like she wore one everyday. Ronon kept alert, knowing that any man with in the courtyard would take her in heart beat if they could. It was his duty to protect his sister no matter what.

Flanna reached the center of the courtyard, not noticing the spell that she had weaved over each person until it lay so quiet that you could hear a pin drop from fifty feet. She faced a man in battle armour of Sateda, Weyin her opponet.

**A/N: Well I think that's a good spot to leave for the night. I hope you all love the outfit that Flanna was wearing. I saw a gown like that and instantly knew that Flanna would wear that to the Ansciension and I also wanted to make a grand entrance for the gal, what better way than that to face down her archenemy? See you all soon enough for the next chapter. Have fun Reading because I had fun writing!**


	8. Trials of her people

**Chapter Eight**

**Trials of her people**

Bridget watched as her dad's team left Atlantis, going through the Stargate to Sateda. Flanna had already left hours ago, a gleam in her eyes, claiming that she had a couple things to perpare first before she was suposed to be on Sateda. Turning around with a plan in her mind, Bridget jumped of the ground and about landed in ther person that was standing behind's arms. Realizing it was just Cora and Conan, Bridget sighed trumeniously.

"Don't do that!" She exclaimed after grabbing onto her chest to stop the pounding of her heart.

"Sorry. We need your help. Conan and I want to go to the Anscenion and Test of Eachann to keep a look out. The only problem is, we don't have the ATA gene and we need you to pilot a jumper." Cora told her, leading the way through the halls of Atlantis.

"You do know that if we are ever caught, I'm going to get grounded for life and my dad will make Rodney give me extra science homework for a month." Bridget pointed out to her, shuddering at the thought of having more lectors from Rodney. She loved him like an uncle, but Rodney could make a Drill Seargant look like a kindergarten teacher when he was in full rant mode. She did not want to suffer that for a month.

"So we make sure we don't get caught." Conan spoke, following his twin sister and Bird.

"Fine, but if we do, I'm blaming you two if we do." Bridget told them, heading towards the Quarters that her family shared.

Reaching the door, Cora and Conan finished explaining their plan as Bridget opened the door to reveal Cyntha with Bird's bag, her bag, and her two swords. "There's a flaw with your plan, Dexes."

"And what is that, Sheppard?" Conan asked, being aggrive about his sister's idea.

"You won't make it past the gateromm with out a diverson. You have to uncloak the jumper before entering the Event horizon. Rodeny gave me a three hour lector on it." She told them, matter of factly.

"What do we do them?" Cora asked before her brother opened his mouth.

"Come on in, I have the perfect soluation." Cyntha waved the three of them inside, moving golf magazines, science books, and homework papers off the coffee table near the door.

**SGA**

Flanna faced her oppenate, waiting for him to make one wrong move. The Test of Eachann was designed to prove the heir to the Throne. It had been used thousands of years ago when their old king had died and no one could find his son. Years had gone by before the test had to be used again, eventually the people made the person wanting to rule take the test to prove their intentions.

An old woman, probably one of the Elders stepped between the two, raising her voice. "Now this test is to prove that you really are of the line of Eachann, himself. Whoever makes it through all of the tests will be able to grant the right of Anscension if they so please." Raising her arm to point at the stargate she continued. "Another Elder will dial a secret gate address. Whoever makes it through the trials ahead of them and surrives the night, will continue onto the next tests."

Both Flanna and Weyin stared at eachother, telling the other with their eyes not to mess with them.

**SGA**

Several hours earlier on Earth, an explosian blew the huge stained glass window and a woman across the floor. She landed with her arms covered in blood from the inbedded glass still covering her face. Two other people were caught in the explosian, but they weren't as badly injured as the woman that was thrown several feet across the cathidral.

Susan had been in the cathidral waiting to meet some contacts as part of her Black Operatons training, the only thing wrong was the fact that a group of Terrorists had bombed the cathridal believing that it had been empty. Time slowed down as the shards of glass and the woman hit the floor on her back.

Several minutes had gone by and you could hear the sounds of Sirens and people hurring to the sight of the blast. A gurney was rushed through the halls of a modern day hospital, several nurses and doctors running beside it trying to get their paintent to life saving surgery in time.

As the gurney turned a corner, you could see that the paintent was a woman with short shoulder length hair. She wore an oxegen mask, and her skin looked unnaturarally white agaisnt the hospital sheets, contrasting with her midnight colored hair.

**SGA**

Jack O'Neill was NOT looking forward to this week's dial in with Atlantis. Colonel Sheppard wouldn't know that his daughter, Susan was dead until he relayed the news, something the General really didn't want to do.

"General O'Neill, I didn't expect you to be present while we transferred files, sir." Colonel Carter told him knowing how much the general hated the little things that were part of his job.

"Carter, somethings happened here on Earth. Sheppard has been recalled back."

"I'll tell him to pack his bags then." Carter spoke when O'Neill paused to gather his thoughts. "He'll be well missed on Atlantis."

"Carter, he's not being reassigned. We got word of an explosian somewhere in Russia where three people were killed. Susan Teryl Turner-Sheppard was one of them."

Carter and all the Technicians' on duty heard the General speak, yet they didn't know how to break the news of Susan dead to John. He was really protective of his daughters, that much the Atlanteans saw when his kids moved in with their dad. Second, John Sheppard loved his daughters with all of his heart, he wouldn't rest until he found the people responisble for killing Susan, even if it killed him.

"I will notify him at once, General. Thank you for passing the news along, sir." Sam assured him, before the gate shut off.

_A/N: Ducks flying things and hears the BOOS, I know I know that you guys are mad about this, but not all things look this bad, can it?_


	9. Undercover Sisters

**Chapter Nine**

**Undercover Sisters.**

_A/N: I guess a lot of you were really upset about the fact that Susan is dead. I hope I redeem myself to you dear readers in the next several chapters._

The area around the Stargate where Flanna came out of was inside of a building in the desert, that much she could see. The building looked like the greek ruins on Earth, pratically the one in Athens, dedicated to Athena, the stargate standing where the statue used to sit. Looking around herself, Flanna decided this wasn't a test for Stamina or Strength, but rather one of the heart or intellect.

Weyin stood beside the dress-clad Flanna, waiting to see what this test was before he did anything. Flanna's wind-blown hair hung loosely around her shoulders, while she walked around. Finding something that could be anything, she paused and looked closer. It was three words written on the ground before her, each word lay beside it's self and looked like it could connect with the other two, pieces of a bigger puzzle in a sense.

"Kin, Sorrow, Hate." She read them, kneeling beside the oddly shaped tiles. She wasn't perpared for something this simple to start out with. "Kin must refer to Sorrow, which can turn to Hate of thy enemy if it can rot in your heart." She placed the word Hate between the words Sorrow and Kin making the now connected pieces to glow and the floor underneath her disappear. Flanna felt herself falling as the stone underneath started to crumble revealing a stone pillar.

Landing on the ground beside two stone pillard, Flanna pushed herself up, doing the same to her hair. She despertly wished that she had a srunchie with her right then. Spotting one of the pillars, she walked over to it. Flanna traced her hand over the pillar, reading the faint writing on it.

"The story of Monis and the giant creature. All who enter here must give an answer. Whether it's right or wrong, The one who decides is the one bearing the blood of the Ancestors. Enter at you own Risk." She read outloud, wondering what that could possibly mean. As she tried to understand it, Weyin had already jumped down after her, walking forward between the pillars.

"Monis was a folish Leader." He had said for his answer. Flanna, having guessed what the traps where, pushed Weyin, tripping on the hem of her skirt, out of the way of a studded log that came crashing down from a wall.

Recovering from her fall, Flanna pushed herself upwards, couching on the raised dust and dirt that was in the air. Glaring at her half brother, Flanna shook the dirt off her clothes, wishing again that she had brought her bag and weapons. Speaking to the now empty air, she gave her answer. "A lesson learned is a lesson lived. Monis learned that by not listening to his people and believing them could have folish coniquences happen."

Several seconds passed, while Flanna waited for another trap to engage. Seeing that nothing was going to happen, she passed through the pillars unharmed. Flanna followed the ancient stone hallway several yards before she came to a crossroad. Seeing a sign pointing in each direction, she read what was on it. "The way is blocked, travel down this road to the Dragon's lair." Words carved into the sign that was pointing to the left. Turning to the other one, Flanna read before making her choice. "To cross into the unknown one must have an idea of what the road holds before choosing."

Thinking, Flanna looked from left to right. Finally she thre up her arms. "Well isn't that maddingly unhelpful. Dragon's lair or the unknown, how am I supposed to choose that one?"

"Of course, why didn't I see that before?! The unknown is the way I want." Making up her mind, she continued down the right hand passage.

**SGA**

John turned to Ronon, who was standing besdie him, asking. "So how long do these sort of tests take?"

Ronon shrugged, keeping an eye on the Satedans around him. "Depends on the test and the person taking them."

Suddenly a large shadow fell over the three Atlanteans and Runners. Looking up, Rodney told them. "That's weird. There's no cloud cover over head. You didn't order a cloaked Jumper on this mission did you?"

"No, why?" John asked right before hell broke loose. The Satedans all around them, pulled out weapons and started to attack the twelve Runners that had gone with John and his team.

**SGA**

Bridget watched as Cyntha pulled something out of her pocket mumbling about the cloak needing a tune up. Spotting that things had gone dramically wrong below the jumper, Bridget flew the ship a few meters away and landed it, uncloaking it as she opened the hatch.

John seeing the newly uncloaked ship, changed direction as he fired some bullets trying to buy the fifteen of them some time to get to safety.

"So who's flying this bucket of bolts?" John asked, once the hatch closed all the way, relaxing for the moment.

A voice that he though he would never hear on Sateda floated back from the cockpit as everyone else looked at each other uncomfortable. "I am."

"Bridget Jacqeuline Sheppard, what the hell are you doing flying a Jumper on Sateda without my permission?!" John asked, walking fully into the cockpit, spotting Cyntha and the Dex twins.

"Hey! I'm not the one that came up with this little adventure this time, dad." Bridget defended herself, looking pointedly at Cora and Conan.

"We will talk later, just get us out of here, now young lady." He told her, standing in the jumper behind Bridget as she dialed up the address for Atlantis.

**SGA**

Bird walked from her room to Cyntha's wondering when their dad will disapline them. Seeing her sister reading another Science notebook, she interrupted her. "What time did Dad say he'd be back from his meeting with the Colonel?"

Sighing, Cyntha put a bookmark in between the pages of her book, laying it on the bed beside her. "Dunno. He's been gone like five hours now."

"How long does it take to complete a single meeting? I'm gonna see if he hasn't been down by uncle Ronon or Uncle Rodney's." Bridget told her, reaching up to her ear piece.

SGA

John Sheppard sat in a cloaked Jumper, thinking. He had come looking for somewhere where he could just disappear for a bit and think. It wasn't often that his emotions showed, but when they did, he was always alone most of the time. How would he explain to Bird and Red why the three of them were going to Earth and why they couldn't play with their older sister? They saw her like four days ago, now they were getting told that she was never coming back to them. Bridget was most likely to pitch a fight, choosing anger over the crying that she knew would start when she least expected it. Red, who was quiet to begin with, would hole up for a good long while not speaking to anyone, bearing herself in her science studies. Not even Rodney, who she admired, would be able to get her to speak anything.

_A/N: Well I hope this chapter invokes some of you to review and comment anything. Even if it's just you telling me that you look forward to reading more, I'm always happy to read reviews, it's like getting paid, because frankly that's the only way we do on here._


	10. Shades of Grey

**Chapter Ten**

**Shades of Grey**

Bridget walked through Atlantis, going to all of the normal places to find her father. Cyntha had opted to stay in her room and finish the latest borowed book from Rodney, something along the lines of a Blind Watchmaker and Dawkins, who ever that was.

John had argued with himself up and down in the Jumper, wishing and promising himself that Linda would appear any second now, with Susan safely in tow. But seconds turned to minutes, than hours and Linda still didn't show up.

Rodney and Carter were walking down a hallway, arguing about the latest science project that was going on and how Cyntha was coming along with her apprenticship to Rodney. Walking past the Jumper bay, they spotted John hugging Bridget. Rodney thought nothing of it but words that John uttered stopped him in his tracks.

"It'll be alright, Bird. We'll find her no matter what, I promise you." John wrapped his arms around the crying girl, not even thinking about the tears staining his shirtfront.

Turning to Sam, Rodney started to ask, pointing his finger back at the Sheppards. "What's up with..."

"I'll tell you when we get to your lab, McKay." Carter pulled him through the halls of Atlantis, trying to get the image of father and Daughter out of her head. It was not her place to have stepped into their time.

Bridget leaned her ear against the door of Cyntha's room. Her dad had just told her and it had gone deathly quiet in there. Knowing how much Red hated to show her emotions, Bird guess that that she was starring out of the window, blinking rapidly. Suddenly something hit a wall and it sounded like it had shattered, making Bridget wince with symathy. She just hoped it hadn't been the glass figurines that their mom and Susan had given to her. After that Bridget heard Cyntha yelling and screaming, guessing it was about the time where she chose being mad over the tears yet to come.

A couple days after Cyntha and Bridget learned that Susan was never coming back, the Daedalus arrived at Atlantis, on one of it's numerious runs. They would be staying on the ship while it traveled back to Earth so about seven weeks traveling total.

The remaining Sheppards stood in the gateroom, with their bags packed when Ford came hurrying down the steps with a bag slung over his shoulder.

"Where are you going?" John asked him, while Aiden came to stand beside the three of them.

"Respectfully sir, She was my team mate, partner, and most of all, she was my friend. I wouldn't be standing here if she hadn't put her life in jepadory to save mine, I owe it to her. I'm coming along to say goodbye." Aiden told him, facing frontwards and not looking at John, missing the look that he gave the young Liuentant.

Bridget walked through the hallways of the Daedalus, missing her family. She knew that Cyntha and her dad had different ways of dealing with pain, but locking yourself up in your room for days while claiming that Susan was still alive didn't help matters. Cyntha had kicked everyone out of her room, when they had tried to get her to believe that She was really dead. And by She, Bridget meant Susan. It hurt like twisting a knife in a wound bad even uttering or thinking of her sister. Susan once told her when they first arrived that she was going nowhere. She would always be there if Bridget needed her.

Cyntha wrote and wrote and tried to figure out the odds of Susan surriving, believing that she was alive. Bridget had tried many times to get Cyntha to believe that she was dead and gone before they reached Earth. A note was tapped to the outside of Cyntha's door, when Bridget walked past it. It was addressed to her, so she took it with her while getting some lunch.

Aiden sat down across the only Sheppard to show themselves while on the three week voayage. Seeing that she was reading something, he didn't say anything, just ate his sandwich and thought about his dead partner.

"Cyntha actually was right?!" Bridget put down the paper and looked into the dark eyes of Aiden Ford.

"Right about what?" Aiden asked around his turkey and swiss cheese sandwich.

"This." she handed him the paper. Aiden looked at it and saw that the words were misspelled and out of order.

"It's in code, kid." He told her, handing it back to Bridget. "Even if the odds were on our side, it won't matter. Susan is dead, she's not coming back kid."

"Oh, sorrry. Cyntha writes things like this for me because of my dislexia. Comes in handy when trying to decode or read a mess of writing but it's a pain for homework, let me tell you." Bridget unfolded the page and grabbed a pen and notebook from one of the pockets in her cargo pants. She wrote the correct note, scrunching her eyes close together and covering everything but the line that she was writing.

"Hey. You don't have to do that, you know. Maybe Cyntha is dealing with her grief by thinking that she can bring her back. I did the same thing when my parents died years ago." Aiden put his hand overtop of Bridget's, stopping her from continuing in her fruitless quest.

"She's alive, Aiden! I can feel it in my heart." The last part, Bridget said it like she despertally needed to believe what she was saying, wishpering it to the air.

"Sheppards, the craziest of the crazies." Aiden muttered to himself underneath his breath, finishing the rest of his lunch and leaving Bridget to her own devices.

"Clarissa?" A thick Russian accent broke through her dream of confusing images. It was like watching a movie and the sound to it had been damaged somehow. Slowly she peeled her eyelids apart, looking into the bluest eyes she had ever saw. "Your awake finally. That's good to see."

"Do I..."She started to ask but started to but stopped relizing her throat was dry as the Sahara desert.

"Don't talk. Here." The old man held a straw to her lips while she drank the cold water inside the styrofoam cup. "You don't remember me do you?" He finally asked when she had pushed the cup away, signally that she was done.

"Why do you keep calling me Clarissa ?" She asked, shaking her head no that she didn't remember him.

"I am Pavel Bazhenov, I am your great uncle on your father's side. You were caught in an explosion caused by several rogue Russians trying to over power the government several days ago. Your real name is Clarissa Romanova, you work for the Russian Secret Service." He gave her a folder full of pictures and documents.

"Clarissa is a Spanish name is it not?" She asked, looking at the pictures trying to get a feel of who she really was.

"I'm afraid so, your mother was a spanish digninarty that married your father when they meant several years before you were born."

"What was she like?" Clarissa asked, feeling like she was missing a big part of the puzzle here. It all sounded off to her somehow, she just couldn't put a finger on what.

"Your mother?" Pavel sat in the chair beside Clarissa's bed, his eyes going dreamy. "She was vibrant and full of life. She could be fiery with passion one moment and have a balzing temper the next. That woman could cuss you out of every country and still be able to come up with more words than you would think possible." Pavel told Clarissa about her, his face lighting up with the memories. "She was one of a kind lady. We were all devasted when she died three years ago from cancer. I think your father just couldn't live without her anymore because he died three days later. They loved eachother very deeply and you, they loved you almost as much."

The funeral for Susan Teryl Turner-Sheppard was held on a raining Saturday, the fifth of September. The same day that she had held as her birthday. John and his daughters were staying in a hotel nearby the place where she grew up in, Soda Springs Idaho, a little town about an hour and half from Salt Lake, where they had disbarked from a private plane. Ford had opted to visit his grandparents until the day of the funeral, which had been secedualed for two weeks.

"I'm not wearing a dress." Cyntha had put her foot down, when John had made her wear a black dress. "I'll wear my black leather but no dress."

"Fine." John gave up on making Cyntha wear a dress. He was wearing his dress blues to the funeral, while Bridget was wearing an off the shoulder long sleeves black dress with comfortable combat boots, something that John had raised his eyebrows at.

John watched as the magonhany casket was lowered into the ground, thinking about Cyntha's words. He was starting to believe her when he started to dig into the file on the explosive in Russia. Something wasn't right but he didn't know what.

Turning he saw Aiden Ford trying to cheer up the girls, putting his grief away for the moment. He was hurting almost as badly as his family. Susan was his best friend, he thought that he owed her one for bringing him back and missed his partner. They knew that the other would always have their back no matter what. Making up his mind, John headed towards the rental that they had borrowed, tossing the keys in the air and catching them.

"Come on! There's someplace where we need to go." He called to the young women.


	11. Finding Family

**Chapter Eleven**

**Finding Family**

A black Lincoln sedan pulled onto a gravel lane between two rows of white Pickett fence. On the other side of the two fences were horses happily munching on grass.

"Why did we pull into a riding stable, dad?" Bridget asked, leaning forward between the two front seats.

"You'll see when we get there and it's not a riding stable." John told her, pulling the sedan in front of a brick two story house.

"Why are we here?" Cyntha asked, tugging on her black leather jacket pushing the car door shut as she got out and followed her family.

John pushed the doorbell, next to the white front door. His daughters stood by his side, looking around themselves in wonder. Whoever owned this place must be rich.

Suddenly the door swung open to reveal a man that looked like a much older John Sheppard. He squinted his hazel eyes at John, leaving a walking stick next to the door.

"John?" He asked, walking forward to get a better look. "In all these years...my boy, you have come back!" His deep voice was filled with joy as he hugged John fiercely.

When Patrick Sheppard released John, he turned to Bridget and Cyntha, asking. "And might you two be?"

John cleared his throat, before talking. "Dad, this is Bridget and Cyntha. Girls this is your grandfather."

"Ah...hi!" Cyntha spoke first, nugging her sister in the ribs.

"What was that for?" Bridget asked, after getting a sever nug in the ribs.

"Well come in, Come in!" Patrick led the way through the front door. "If I remember correctly, Helena just started to make some triple chocalate cookies. Why don't you ladies go join her, while your father and I have a chat in the study. John?" Patrick opened the wooden door along the elegant hallway, after telling the girls how to find the kitchen.

**SGA**

"Why didn't you tell me that you had two daughters?" Patrick asked, once the door latch had shut with a click.

John ran his hands through his already messy hair. "Actually I have three. Does Nancy come by still?"

Patrick sat in a high back chair surprised by his eldest son's words. "Why Nancy? You haven't talked with that filly in years, why all of a sudden now?"

John stopped pacing and sprawled out in the other high-back chair. This was the moment that he had been dreading besides talking with Nancy. "I need Nancy's help in finding Susan, our daughter. The report claimed that she died almost five weeks ago in an explosive in a Russian Cathedral. There's just something odd with that report, I just know it." John rubbed the back of his neck, staring at his feet.

"She works for as the Director of Security for the White house. She's in town for the weekend visiting her brother." Patrick finally told him, knowing that John would find her if he didn't help him.

"Thanks, you still have the Ford still where I left it?" John finally asked, pushing himself out of the chair and passing again.

"You planning on impression that Filly, aren't you?" Patrick caught the look in his sons eyes and smiled inside. "Keys are where you left it. Check the garage, boy."

"I'll be back for dinner." John told him, halfway through the door before asking one final question. "Could you..ah..keep an eye on the girls until I get back?"

**SGA**

Helena turned out to be a large African American woman that loved color as much as she loved laughing and talking. Spotting the two girls, she grinned motioning them to sit while she mixed dough by hand in a big mixing bowl. "Well what do we have here, hmm? Looks like Patrick brought home a couple strays from his walk again. Well sit yourselves down in them chairs and you two can help me make my special choco-Late brownies."

"I'm guessing you are Helen." Bridget spoke, while sitting in one of the breakfast bar stools.

"You're right as rain, Sugar. If I weren't Helena, don't you think I would be making these brownies for ya'll?" Helena put two cookie trays in front of the two girls, before plopping the bowl full of batter in the middle.

"Now, what are your names, young'ins?" Helen asked, shaping the dough with her hands and spacing them on the tray.

"I'm Bridget and this is Cyntha." Bridget introduced herself and her sister.

"My mamma always claimed that you could fix any kind of worry by making these brownies, she swore by it even. Looks to me like you two have a big kind of worry weighing you down, you can tell Helena anything, Suga'."

Bridget looked silently at Cyntha. Finally Cyntha spoke for the both of them. "Our sister, Susan died."

Helena wiped her flour covered hands on her loud and colorful apron, before walking around the counter. "Well honey, She might be in a better place now, hmm. At least you have each other and the memories of the good times. Why I had a dog once, we called him Rover because that dog was always getting caught in something on our place. Well one day, I yelled and said some pretty nasty thangs to that pup. And you know what he did?" Helena asked them, wrapping a girl in each of her arms.

"What?" Cyntha asked, curiously.

"Why he turned tail at me, gave me those big puppy dog eyes and then lit out of there so fast, you could have sworn he was chasing something. I never saw that dog again. But you know what I had when I was down and needed him to cheer me up again? I thought about those times that we went fishing or spaaashing in the crick behind our house and I was okay once more." Helena patted the two on their shoulders, after giving them one last squeeze. "Now come on sugars, these brownies don't make themselves ya know."

John came in several minutes later, as the last batch of cookies were done. He grabbed one off the cooling rack, juggling it as he kissed Cyntha and Bridget on the forehead.

Helena whacked him on the fingers with a wooden spoon, berating him. "Jonathon O'Malley Sheppard, Whatcha thinking trying to steal a cookie from Helena?" She asked, putting her hands on her ample hips, still holding the wooden spoon.

"Sorry, Helena. I just love your cookies." John told her, trying to juggle the hot cookie and get out of reach of Helena's spoon.

"I haven't seen you in eighteen years and ya'll leaving within eighteen minutes, sugar. Let me tell you a thing or two. If you had missed my cooking that bad, you would have come back sooner and brought these pretty fillies with ya."

"Tell ya what, Helena." John told her. "You get to watch over the girls while I go visit an old friend."

"If by old friend ya mean Nancy, bring her back here for dinner, ya hear, now? She hasn't had any of my cooking in years either." Helena swatted John on the way out of the kitchen, smiling.

**SGA**

Nancy looked out of a window as a black nineteen-sixty-one Ford Galaxie Sunliner convertible pulled into her brother's driveway. She was instantly curious for she recognized that car, it belonged to one John Sheppard. He loved that car. John got out of the car and walked up to the front walk.

Hearing the doorbell go off, she let her brother get the door. She pulled her hair into a half pony-tail and grabbed her brown leather jacket, intending to slip out before John or her brother saw her.

"Hey Nance! Sheppard wants to talk with you, says it's important!" Her brother's voice came up the stairs. Sighing Nancy knew that what ever it was, John wouldn't have sought her out if it wasn't very important.

"Why are you here, John?" She asked, coming around the corner, wearing her leather jacket and blue jeans with comfortable boots and a sweater underneath her jacket.

"We need to talk, Nancy. And I need your help finding our daughter." John told her, fiddling with his car keys.

"John, our daughter died almost nineteen years ago. She's never coming back." Nancy told him, trying to hide the hurt and surprise in her eyes.

"That's why I came by. Dad and Helena want you to come by for dinner tonight and I have some explaining to do on the whole daughter thing." John pocketed his keys and pointed to the black car in the driveway.

"Fine, but it's only for Helena's cooking." Nancy told him, waving a goodbye to her brother.

SGA

Nancy watched as John drove through the city streets, knowing where he was going. Their special spot, the one by the lake, where they met. She tried not to think of those times, knowing that they could never come back and be relived once more.

"You brought me here to look at the water?" Nancy asked, once the car had stopped moving. It was lookout point, the only place where John had taken her when their was important things to discuss.

"Nance, nineteen years ago our daughter was switched with another. Our daughter lived but she grew up moving from foster home to foster home from the age of three to ten, where she was adopted by a family that lived in Soda Springs."

"John, she's gone. Trust me, I was there. She's never coming back from the grave." Nancy silenced him, seeing that it was pointless to go over things already in the past.

"No she isn't. Six weeks ago she was stationed in Russia to finish some Black Ops training, but an explosion went off in building that she was in. But the report was incomplete, Nancy. I need you to help me find out anything on project: Lunar Ten. She was working on that when she went missing." John told her, turning to face her on the beige bench seat.

"How do you know this, John?" Nancy asked, facing the man that she first loved as the sun started to go below the point of land that they had parked on.

"I recruited her a year and a half ago for the base that I'm stationed on. I didn't know that she was my daughter until the base doctor did blood samples. Figured that I might as well get used to it because she could fly planes and 'copters as well as me."

"Why am I not surprised about her being Air Force and doing the cloak and Dagger thing?" Nancy told him, resigning herself to the fact that John might actually be right. "How soon do you need this information?"

"That's the spirit, Nance.I need it as soon as you can get it, the longer we wait the less likely I bring her home safe." John told her, starting up the car and turning the headlights on, before heading back to his dad's house.


	12. Family continued

**Chapter Twelve**

**Family continued.**

Helena caught sight of the look in Cyntha's eyes and knew what it meant. She had seen that look in John's eyes many times over the years that she had worked for Patrick Sheppard. "Go explore, ya two. I think I can wipe a coupla counter-tops by myself."

"Thanks!" Bridget yelled, racing out the back door with her sister.

**SGA**

Cyntha cocked her head, believing that she heard a twig snap behind them. Bridget and she were walking along the numerous trails in the woods behind the house. Motioning for Bridget to slip off the trail and into the shadows, Cyntha continued walking. Acting normal for all accounts while Bird scouted the area. Hearing a mumbled curse and Bridget giving her well known hawk cry, she turned around and hurried back to the scuffle several yards behind her.

Cyntha spotted Bridget holding a boy around her age by an arm across his chest and his other one twisted behind his back. Cyntha spotted another boy coming up behind her sister and slipped into the shadows before he saw her. Sometimes having red hair could be a pain, you couldn't disappear very well. Acting purely on reflex, Red grabbed the boy that was coming up behind her sister by the arm, covering his mouth.

The one in Bridget's grasp wiggled and asking her. " Let me go will ya?What are you doing trespassing?"

Cyntha replied, startling the boy in Bridget's grasp. "Who says we're trespassing? Maybe our dad is talking with someone, hmm?"

The boy in Cyntha's grasp, bit her on the hand, making her release her grip. "Can you let us go and we can talk about this like normal human beings?"

Releasing the boys at the same time, Cyntha and Bridget looked sheepishly at each other. "Sorry about that, it was a reflex. I'm Cyntha and this is Bridget."

"You're strange, you know that." The one that was in Bridget's grasp said, rubbing the arm that had been bent backwards. "I'm Mark Sheppard."

"That's funny Red, I could have sworn they just said Sheppard." Bridget looked at her sister, digging around in her jacket pockets.

"They did, Bridget. Leave it to Dad to leave out important details." She said, pulling out a two pieces of gum. Tossing one to her sister, Red popped her's in her mouth after unwrapping it.

"What are you two doing here, if you aren't trespassing,then?" Mark's brother asked, after introducing himself as Ben.

"You have any peppermint?" Bridget asked, looking at her sister. " Dad's up to something, I bet, and it's dangerous otherwise he would have told us something."

"What are you two talking about?" Ben and Mark asked with identical looks on their face.

"Bridget, you can't keep things under wraps for nothing can you?" Cyntha told her, before trying to explain things to the boys. "Our dad has disappeared after dropping us here. We think it might be connected to the fact that our older sister died in Russia. The information concerning the incident was incomplete."

"So that means what exactly?" Mark asked, his hands thrown out in front of his.

"It means we have to get a hold of Aiden Ford, my sister's partner. If my dad is planning on going after her, he'll need Aiden's help." Cyntha pulled a rather dented phone from her pocket.

"Where'd you get the phone?" Bridget asked, as Red started to dial a number.

"General O'Neill gave it to me, knowing how us, Sheppards are trouble magnets, especially after the last time we went off base."

"Don't remind me, you have any other really cool stuff in your pockets?" Bridget asked eagerly.

"Only the spy gear I picked up over the years, I left my swords and knives in my bag." Cyntha held up her finger as she put the phone to her ear. "Aiden?...Dad's up to something, I just know it. He left us at our grandfather's while he went somewhere...hmmhm...I put a tracker in his wallet. Yeah..." The others listened to the one sided conversation, the boys looking at each other wondering what these two were into. Bridget wasn't surprised when she heard that Cyntha put a tracer on their dad. She was always doing things like that.

"Aiden, listen closely. The report was incomplete and Dad knows something, whatever it is, he'll need you to watch his six, I can feel it." Cyntha's face turned sour when she heard what Aiden had said. "Do I have to remind you what happened about the Iratrus bug thing?"

Bridget mouthed the words 'You don't want to know.' to the boys, walking ahead of Cyntha as they headed back to Helena's Kitchen.

"Fine. You can meet me at twelve sixteen baker street, Soda Springs Idaho in three hours. I'll talk to you later, Aiden. Bye."

Ben and Mark walked beside Bridget as Cyntha hurried to chatch up with her sister. "You guys sure do a lot of weird stuff." Ben remarked casually as Cyntha caught up with them.

"Comes with living on a military top secret base. Normal kids wouldn't be able to handle the kind of stuff we do on a daily basis." Bridget told them.

**SGA**

Helena smiled as she saw the four Sheppards together. It was defiantly a good thing that they could get along with each other, seeing how they were cousins and all. She shook her head fondly, remembering the times when John and his brother, David acted like kids. She currently had roast beef and several of her famous casseroles in the oven for dinner. Cooking for a large crowd was what she loved the most, Helena hadn't cooked for this many since the last holiday. Turning back to her pot of mashed potatoes, she heard Patrick and David come walking into the kitchen.

"Helena, have you seen the girls?" Patrick asked,trying to steal one of her cookies.

"There's out back getting to know Ben and Mark. I sure think they left an impression on them. Ya should have seen the looks on them faces when they realized their cousins were raised on a military base." Helena told them, whacking both of them on the fingers with a wooden spoon. She cackled as she continued her story. "You better not sneak up on them, ya hear now? They're hopper than John on sugar."

"How bad can it be if I did?" David asked, having forgotten his lesson when John was on a sugar high.

"They took down your boys and won. Plus their Father is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force, I think the consequences would be around a broken bone if ya did, honey." Helena put her hands on her hips, facing down the two Sheppard men in a very ugly and colorful apron. Her greying hair was pulled tightly in a bun.

SGA

She saw a giant stone circle with water in the center of it, hearing the sounds of whizzing mosquitoes. Looking around herself, she was suddenly in a room that was giant and sunlight was streaming down through windows. She saw hands reaching out to her, blurred faces go by so quick that she couldn't remember them. A single word was mouthed by all of them, but she couldn't see or hear what it was. It was like watching a movie with the sound disabled. She asked them. "Who am I? Where do I belong? What was my past?" But none of these were answered.

Clarissa bolted straight up in bed, gasping for breath. She ran her fingers through her hair, leaning on her propped knees, trying to remember what she just saw. But the only thing that stayed with her was the image of a stone circle with symbols on it and a blue cloud jumping out from it, leaving an image of the stars behind.

She quickly reached for her pencil and journal that she kept by her bed, opening it Clarissa quickly sketched out the circle and stared at it, trying to guess what it was.

Her uncle Pavel found her like this, Clarissa tracing her fingers over the image and trying to guess why this for the key to her past.

"Clarissa? What is that?" Pavel asked handing the woman a cup of morning coffee. "I made your favorite blend for you this morning."

"Thank you, Uncle." She replied, tracing the lines that she drew and whispering words. "A gate to the stars. Why could I have possibly dreamed of a gate to the stars? Is my destiny hidden in them for a reason?"

"Clarissa, come child, you cannot spend your whole morning in this room. Come join me for some reading, perhaps." Pavel told her, brushing her wayward strands of hair out of her face.

"In a moment Uncle. I need to do something first." Clarissa told him, pulling out another sheet of paper and drawing on it.

"Child, you must leave this world of Fantasy that you have buried yourself in." Pavel told her, sighing heavily and turning to leave the room.

"Soon Uncle." Clarissa told him, smiling at him when Pavel turned to look at her questionably.

Once Pavel was gone, Clarissa finished the sketch that she was doing. It was a person, but she couldn't tell what or who it was. He had white stringy hair, a black mark on around his eye shaped like a lighting bolt and greenish colored skin. Fang like teeth and a long goatee completed his look.

Clarissa stared at it for several seconds before pinning it up on the back of the door with the other drawings. The door was covered in drawings of people, places, things, anything that she remembered from her dreams. She knew it was a key to unlocking her past, but she didn't know how or why.

**SGA**

Nancy unlocked the door to her office, still not having made up her mind on whether to risk her job to help John. Her mind knew that her daughter was dead and wasn't coming back, but her heart told her a different story, telling her that she could trust the man that she once called husband. It was tough to choose which one she should follow, her heart or her mind. If she choose to follow her mind, she knew that she'd be killing the only way to meet her daughter, a daughter that she wished had been there while she grew up. She had missed all the kisses, the hugs, the bedtime stories, the late night getting up and just looking down at an angelic face sleeping.

If she choose to follow her heart and John had been lying to her, she knew it would kill her. She was barely able to forget the pain of loosing her daughter once, loosing her twice would kill her. She sank into the desk chair, leaving her jacket on the hook by the door. Propping her elbows on the desk, she put her head in her hands, thinking.

"Ma'am, would you like some coffee?" Her secretary's voice broke through Nancy's thoughts, bringing her out of her turnwell.

"No thanks, Lauren. What appointments do I have today?" She asked, gathering her jacket and purse on the way out the door.

"Just a two o'clock one and a four-fifteen one with an Air Force General." Lauren told her, pushing her reading glasses up her nose and tucking a strand of sliver hair behind her ear.

"Cancel the two o'clock one. I'll be back in a couple of hours, there's somewhere I need to go visit for a while." Nancy told her, halfway out the door by now.

_A/N: Well that's the end of Chapter twelve folks. _


	13. Folowing your Heart

**Chapter Thirteen**

**Following your Heart**

_A/N: Well what do you know? Another chapter and that means another visit with our favorite characters that everyone knows about. The plot is still thick as ever, the suspense is over whelming and, the stage is set, all that leaves us is to draw the curtain. Happy reading!_

Nancy walked across a paved stone walkway, her heels beating out a steady tap as she walked purposely by the many couples holding hands. She walked past a playground full of laughing children, playing in the numerous piles of leaves everywhere. She kept her head down, trying to block the happy noises made by children all around her. It was times like this that she desperately missed her daughter.

Entering an opening in a large hedge that she had been walking towards, Nancy stepped into a totally different world. Instead of the laughter and the fall colors this garden was long dead. Grey tree branches hung over equally as cold stone benches. Her heels now made a crunching sound when she walked. This had once been a beautiful garden anyone could have seen that, but as the years had flown by few people knew about this garden and fewer still actually came to visit it.

Nancy hurried past the stone statues, benches and the dead plants until she was standing in a far corner. In the corner stood a simple stone angel holding it's arms up like it was receiving something from a taller person or being, looking sad. Nancy knelt and started to remove the dead twigs and leaves from the base, uncovering some words. Once both the angel and the pedestal it stood on were clear, Nancy laid her hand on the words, a single tear starting to form in her hazel eyes.

"Do I listen to my heart or my head?" She whispered out loud, wiping a tear from her eye.

She stayed like that, thinking about John and the life that she once had. She only had her daughter for three hours but in that time, she knew that she would move the moon and stars to protect her child. She remembered holding her, like it was yesterday. Her daughter had her father's eyes, that much Nancy saw immediately of her. Finally her heart won the battle within her and Nancy stood up, looking down at the stone angel.

"You may not have been my daughter of flesh and blood, but wherever she is, I will find her. I promise this on your grave, my heart. If risking my job and livelihood is what it takes to bring you back to me, so be it." And with that much said, Nancy turned on her heel and walked away leaving a single dried out purple rose on the angel's pedestal. She never looked back as she left the secret garden, but her walk and posture said that she had a new meaning for life. She would help bring back her daughter at all costs, no matter what.

**SGA**

Lauren stared at the man before her, wondering what he wanted with Nancy. His combed hair was already starting to pop up in places, but everything else about the man yelled military.

"Do you have an appointment with ms. Stevenson, sir?" She asked, starting to type in her computer.

"I was in the neighborhood and drop in and see an old friend, ma'am." He said, leaning his hip against her desk.

Just then, Nancy came out of her office, reading an open folder. Looking up, she spotted the man talking to her secretary. "John Sheppard, aren't you a little far from home?" She asked, snapping shut the folder.

"Dad's having a blast visiting his granddaughters and I was in the neighborhood. I was about to head out for a mission and wanted to talk to you before I left." John told her, straightening up.

"Well you might as well just come in." Nancy turned to Lauren. "Any word on that Air Force General, Lauren?"

"Not yet, ma'am. He wants to reschedule for tomorrow at five o'clock sharp due to a problem at the base he's in charge of." Lauren told her, saving what she had been working on.

"I guess clear five o'clock and the next couple of hours then, Lauren. After that, why don't you go home early tonight? I thought I heard you bragging about that latest grandchild being born." Nancy told her, putting her folder in a basket on Lauren's desk. "That makes, how many now?"

"Thirteen. They're all growing like weeds these days." Lauren smiled, proudly looking at the picture that she kept on her desk.

"Have a fun night, enjoy those grand-babies to the fullest." Nancy told her, stopping as she started to close her office door. John was already sitting on the edge of her desk, just like he used to when they were married.

**SGA**

John asked Nancy as she sat down at her desk. "Well?"

"I didn't find much but what I did doesn't make much sense. Whatever it is it's pretty secret that's for sure." Nancy told him, handing over the thumb-drive that she pulled from a drawer in her desk.

"Thanks Nance. I knew you would come through." John told her, taking the device and heading for the office door.

"Just promise me one thing, John Sheppard." Nancy's voice stopped him in his tracks.

"What?" John turned around, asking, his hand still holding the half opened door.

Nancy smiled and said with a fierce tone that reminded him of a mother lion. "Bring our daughter home to me."

"I give you my word on that, Nancy." John told her, heading out the door. The door shut the sound making it resound through Nancy's office and sealing the promise John had given her.

Nancy knew than that John Sheppard would do anything within his power to bring their daughter home safe and sound, they didn't leave family behind no matter what.

**SGA**

Clarissa stared at the pictures pinned to the wall behind the door. Out of the bunch that hung there, she only kept thinking about two of them. They puzzled her, Clarissa stared at those pictures for hours trying to make the connection but it was like being in a room so dark that you could only see bits and pieces of several jumbled things. One picture held the likeness of a messy haired man, while the other was of a man with a military haircut. She kept remembering that look in the eyes of the man that had the military hair cut. He looked at her if she held the moon and all the stars, she made the sun rise on the distance horizon, bringing to mind a city on the water.

She didn't know what the city was or where, but it seemed magical. A place where she felt safe and protected. Home. Clarissa pulled her knees up, wrapping her arms around them, after pulling a thick blanket over her shoulders. The city on the water was her home not this cold and deary house in Russia. She didn't understand half of the dignitaries and the other half just infuriated her. She was no diplomat, but why couldn't her uncle Pavel see that? He kept insisting that she gave it a couple more weeks because her game might be off.

**Flashback**

She stared around herself, watching as men with guns pointed them at her, cautious and wary. A man, she now recognized as the one with the brown military hair cut, pulled her behind him while he pulled a pistol on a messy haired man standing before them. Beside the messy haired man stood a tall man with dreadlocks, she supposed it might have been frightening to look at him, but something within her told her that he would try to protect her at any cost. She started to realize that the messy haired one, who she had nicknamed as 'Hans Solo' reminded her of herself in a way, but how? A woman stood on the other side of 'Chewy' she nicknamed him that because he reminded her of Chewy from Star Wars. He was the side kick of the original Hans Solo and this Chewy was this Hans Solo side kick also. The woman only reached up to Chewy's shoulder, but she knew that she was just as dangerious, maybe more so than Chewy ever would be, but that didn't frighten her, no if anything that made her feel protected and safe from harm even more. The woman she nicknamed as Xena, she was a warrior princess in her mind. Xena held herself elegantly yet she knew in her heart that this woman was a true warrior.

"Let her go, Lorne." Hans Solo told the man that was pointing his gun at the four of them.

"I won't let you brain wash her, sir. I love her." the man told Hans Solo, she having to remind herself that he was really called Lorne. She would have pegged him as Romeo a second ago.

"That's not really you talking, Major. That's the plant messing with your head. Let my daughter go and I just might not report you." Hans Solo told the man firmly, pulling out a gun as well and pointing it at Lorne.

"Not unless you let us go." Lorne told him, shooting a wild look around himself. She realized that she had more in common with the name Juliet than she did with Clarissa but it still didn't sound right. At least she now had several names to put to the faces that she kept dreaming up, but those dreams were really memories trying to tell her something, she just didn't know what.

"I will kill you myself if you so much as hurt my daughter, Lorne." Solo told the man, a steel look in his eyes.

**SGA**

Juliet, she liked to call herself Juliet now, rushed through the halls of the city on water beside the man that she had come to realize was actually named Lorne. But she called him something else entirely, she called him Romeo. Juliet and Romeo ran through the city, dodging the weapons blasts and bullets that were shot at them. She didn't know why the Major kept her with him, but this was all starting to confuse her.

"Come on" Romeo yelled, pulling her quickly up and into a can shaped ship. Juliet's feet scrambling for purchase as Lorne let go of her hand, shutting the hatch as the ship raised into the sky.

**SGA**

She heard voices before she actually saw the people that were talking. One of them was the voice of Lorne while the other one she recognized as Captain Coughlin's.

"You're quite the Romeo, Sir." Coughling told him, laughter in his voice. "A couple of times there for a second I could have sworn that the Colonel was going to tear you apart limb for limb. Think it's getting a little old to be pulling a gun on the Colonel, sir?"

"What's to eat around here, Captain?" Lorne's voice came out normal, while she was terrified inside.

"Reed's bringing some food for you and Juliet, Sir. We know how the both of you hate Hospital food. I think Juliet is still in dreamland imaging that kiss over and over again. Lights started to spark and the stunners kept going off around you two. It was quite the site, sir." Coughlin teased him, making Her want to disappear for ever.

"Not with all of the yacking going on. What's for Dinner Reed?" She asked the young Lieutenant as he brought to trays full of food closer.

"Chicken soup with a side of Love, ma'am." Reed replied, a grinning blossoming on his face.

"Oh wouldn't you have just loved that the plant's properties had made you play Romeo and Juliet with my sister, huh Reed?" She asked, sharing a grin with the Major.

"Depends on which sister is willing to put up with a man's crazy sleep walking and love interest." Reed replied, the four of them teasing each other mercifully but they knew it wouldn't be held against them.

"Well we now have a Pegasus version of Romeo and Juliet looks like." She replied, digging into the food that Reed had brought them.

"Yes ma'am. That's what the second time you held the Colonel at gunpoint while Sleep walking, Major?" Reed asked him, She bringing to mind another incident.

"Do I have to remind you of that love sick Cat of yours, Reed?" Major asked, drawing the conversation to another joke the four friends had.

**End Flashback**

She knew the name of the military cut man, Major Lorne and the messy haired man was simply referred to as the Colonel, yet she realized that this was her real father. And two other men began to have names that day, Captain Coughling and Liuentant Reed, she knew that they had her back just as much as another man, but she still didn't know the name of that one.

Her uncle chose that time to enter her room, drawing Clarissa out of her musing. Seeing the look in his eyes, she asked. "Uncle what's wrong?"

"Anything, everything. Pack some clothes, we need to hurry and leave before they find us." Pavel told her, staring at the wall of pictures that she had drawn. None of them made sense to the old man, but he pulled them from their pins, shuffling them into a bag as Clarissa stared at him.

"Uncle? You are starting to scare me, what's going on?" She asked,moving off the bed.

"I'm not really your uncle. Your name isn't Clarissa but I have never known what it was. I found you when you were caught in the explosion that I told you about. You were covered in blood and glass, when I found you but you stayed awake long enough to speak to me. You said Save me. So I called the hospital and got you there before you could die." Pavel grabbed a couple of things from the closet and threw in a pair of shoes.

"So who am I?" She asked herself, stunned by the declaration.

"Seems to me that the way to find yourself is through your drawings and your hobby for math. You really don't make a good diplomat, you know that right?" Pavel asked, smiling, pulling her through the two story house, still talking to her.

"But why are we running?" She asked, hurrying to catch up with the older man, for being so old he sure knew how to run.

"The people that caused the bomb are looking for you. They call themselves the Trust, but you were only safe if they can't find you. That's all I know. You were mumbling things before they got you to the hospital. I don't understand a lot of it, but maybe you can. You kept repeating a string of words. Cheyenne Mountain Complex, in the USA."

"So that's where I should go." She told him, strapping herself in with the seat belt as Pavel took off, driving like a mad man.

"Yes. But first there was a name you kept uttering, at the time I though nothing of it. But now I think you should be able to use it. Major Evan Lorne, I don't know who he is, but maybe it'll hold the key to finding your real life." Pavel stopped the car before a single shed in the middle of nowhere.

"What am I supposed to call myself if not Clarissa?" She asked, turning to the old man as he pushed a button to open the large doors.

"I would be honored if you used Clarissa as your name, as would the real Clarissa. I think she would be proud to have a bright and fearless woman honor herself with it." He finally told her, beckoning her forward and into the hangar.

She smiled at the sight of the plane standing before her. Pavel was full of surprises that was for sure. "I know how to fly this." She said, running her hand over the peeling paint. It was an unique plane but Susan knew something within herself knew she could fly this and do it well.

"I was hoping that you would. I found this close by to the explosion. Figured it would come in handy later on." Pavel was interrupted by several gun shots. He cast a scared and worried look behind the car, before pushing her into the plane and tossing her bag in, also.

"Hurry, you must go before they find you." He told her, making sure that the doors were open wide enough for her to fly out of the building.

"Come with me." Clarissa told him, turning the ship on and getting it ready for the take off.

"I can't. I must stay here and lead them away from you. Find your real self, my child.." Pavel told her, jumping into his car and driving off, trying to lead them away from her.

"I promise, uncle." She cried silently as she brought the plane up into a steep twisting climb, something she was very surprised at.

Flying above the clouds, she pointed the nose of her plane South, wondering if there was a way to get into the USA down there. But she had no answers, and she just followed her heart.


	14. Answers come in many ways

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Answers come in many ways.**

**A/N: Just a heads up there is a link on my profile to view all of the pictures that have been inspired by Flanna or Susan. They have been done by your's truly. And there is also another story that I have written about Linda, if you would like a little back story. **

Cyntha tided the room that she had been given while her father was away, knowing that she had plenty of time before anyone would wake up. It was only about She quickly wrote out a note, making sure that somebody would find it in the morning. She a pair of black demin jeans to wear with her leather jacket, a black tank top and her weapons bag before shutting the door to her room. She would find her sister if it would take years to do just that.

She headed towards the bus stop that was several miles from the house. The bus that she took was headed towards Cheyenne, arriving at Sloan airport in the short hours before morning. She walked past the many terminoles, moving towards the next bus stop. This time she grabbed her bag and got a ticket for the Casper College, having hacked into the files of Jonathon O'Neill. The bus ride from the airport was a two hour ride, stopping many times to let passengers off or on.

Cyntha got off the finaly bus infront of the college in Casper. She stared around herself, finally deciding that she would get a bite to eat, she had just spent almost eight hours on several buses and needed a break before finding the General's clone. She entered the nearest Cafe, after checking how many bills she had left in her pocket. It wasn't much but it was enough to get back to Cheyenne Mountain Complex once she had finished what she came here to do.

The table that she sat at was near the back of the restranut, that way Cyntha could keep an eye on her surroundings while being able to eat some lunch.

**SGA**

JD O'Neill walked into the little Cafe near the bus stop. He was headed towards his apartment, which was near this side of the Campus. He walked towards his normal table, spotting an unknown woman eating there. She was unknown well frankly, he knew almost every face on the Campus and her's wasn't one of them. He would have remembered a beauty like her.

"Can I join you, Ma'am?" He asked after grabbing a snadwich and some chips.

"Sure." She smiled and pushed some her long red hair off her shoulder.

"I'm JD O'Neill." He replied sitting across the beautiful woman.

"Cyntha." She replied, putting on some tortoise shell glasses and a small note book.

"What's a beautiful lady doing in a capmus Cafe at this time of the day?" He asked trying to charm the young woman.

"What makes you think I don't go to school here?" She asked, laying down her glasses and fully looking at JD.

When she did, JD was struck with how very beautiful the woman trully was. Her blue eyes reminded him of the memories that he held from the Oringal Jack O'Neill. Her tossled dark red hair loosely around her tired eyes and that grin. It reminded him of a certain blond haired Astrophysicist.

"I would have remembered you. I know almost everyone here." He pointed out, catching the tired look that Cyntha couldn't hide in her eyes. "Besides seems to me that you could be a couple of things, none of them a student."

"If I aren't a student what do you think I am?" She wearily asked, closing her note book and starting to pack up her books.

"A scientist, defintly, I know quite a few of those and you have the look of one. A military member perhaps, you keep an eye on your surroundings..." JD was about to continue, but Cyntha held up a hand stopping him mid sentence.

"You are wrong on both of those, O'Neill. I keep an eye on my surroundings because I'm a military brat, I'm also only an apprentance scientist. I train under a Dr. McKay." She told him, swinging her bag onto her shoulder before heading out of the cafe.

JD stood up as well and followed the red haired woman. He could tell something was wrong with her and that she might be in trouble, but that didn't stop him from amiring the figure that she had when she walked away from him. He hurried to catch up with the woman before she left him in the dust.

"Hey!" He called out to her. "You need a place to stay for the night?"

Cyntha turned around and saw that JD had followed him. She was tempted to accept his offer but the need to find her sister and dad was greater than the roof over her head that presented it's self to her.

"I'm fine. I'll just catch a ride to the military base. I only came out this far looking for a friend of a friend." She told him, hitching her bag of clothes and weapons higher on her shoulder.

"What's his name? I may know him." Jon asked, concerned about the beauty. She looked battle weary and sad.

"Probably not. His name is Jonathaton O'Neill, sometimes called Jack. My dad was under his uncle's command a couple times." She replied, watching the bus' headlights pull around a corner, heading towards the two.

"That's my name." JD finally told her, pulling her away from he oncoming bus and into the alley beside the cafe. "How do you know that?" He aksed.

"I have trained under Carter and McKay, it would be nice for a little credit about my skills." She told him, pushing his hand off her arm andglaring at him. "That and I read the mission reports a couple times. You are Jack's clone and I need Jack, but he's a little busy, so you'll have to do."

"How do you know all of that?" JD asked, looking around them, making sure no one else over heard them.

"My mom's an ascended being, my dad's the military commander of Atlantis. It's not like I'm a dimwit, you know." Cyntha told him, pulling out a pice of paper from one of the pockets in her bag.

"And I really thought the days of saving the galaxy were over." JD mumbled to himself, taking the paper that Cyntha passed to him. "You sure it's the Trust?" He finally asked.

"Who else do you know takes things without asking if it can be a use to them?" She asked, glaring at the younger verison of Jack.

"The NID for one. Do you really want me to answer that?"

"Just get to the point where we go for a really cool adventure and rescue my sister. If the Trust is after her, we don't have much time to find her if she's hurt." Cyntha told him, hicking up her bag once again.

"Fine but we'll need some intel and gear." JD finally told her, passin the note back and walking towards his apartment. "We leave in the morning, for now lets just get some sleep."

**SGA**

"Sir, we have reports coming in of a lone plane in the area. They're not responding to any of our calls." A yound lieutenant turned to his commanding officer, a radio in his ear as he listened to the chatter.

"I want to know why they aren't. Tell the Silver-spurs to suit up, Perkins. I want that jet on the ground five minutes ago." A stern faced man signed a clipboard, passing it to another solider as he left the room.

"Mathews, get the crew on their feet. The General wants the Silver-spurs in the air and trying to get our unwelcome guest to the ground." Perkins relayed the orders as quickly and effeciantly as possible.

**SGA**

Evan ran with the remaining members of his team, trying to stay out of range of the arrows being shot by the angry villagers. Since Lieutenant Reed was the fasted runner out of all three of them, he dialed up Atlantis, sending his GDO(Garage Dorr Opener) through so that Coughling and Lorne could just go through. Coughling gained the event horizon just as Lorne sped up behind him. The three men tumbled through the 'gate and yelled for the shield to be raised. Several bangs could be heard as Lorne stood up, clutching his arm above his elbow.

"Medical Team to the gate room." Sam called as she hurried to check on everyone. Reed had an arrow in his backpack, but was fine except for needing to chatch his breath again. Coughling made it out with minimum stratches, and Evan had only gotten the wound in his arm and several scratches from running through a forest.

SGA

"How you doing, Boss?" Reed asked, entering the imfirmary as Lorne had finished getting stictches.

"Fine, Trip. How's you and Coughling doing?" Evan asked, curious about his teammates.

"That's why I came by, sir. We think it's time to start looking for another teammate." Reed told him, hating the fact that they had lost their lucky dime. Without Susan on the team, they'd gotten the worst luck imaginable, which was saying something because SGA-1 hadn't been run off in months, unusual in it's self.

"We'll go through the files tomorrow, Trip. I understand competely. We'll always miss our Juliet but it won't help anyone if we keep ending up with the Doctors." Evan sighed, agreeing with the younger man.

"I'll tell Jake, boss. I also came to tell you that the Colonel has grounded us until we all see the Shrink." Reed shuddered, just thinking about the base Shrink. It wasn't that the woman was evil or anything, far from it, he just didn't like Shrinks period.

"Then, I suggest that we go for a visit before the end of the week, Lieutenant."Evan told him, slapping the man on the back as he left the room.

Evan headed for his quarters to finish the latest project that he had started months before Susan had left for Earth. In the days following her death, he hadn't had time to finish it. The painting was of Susan, it was the time that villagers had taken her and turned the fiesty woman that hated fancy into a princess. Just remembering the look on her face as she tried to do something with her billowing skirts, brought a smile to Evan's face.

He knew the frat rules just as well as Susan, but sometimes you give your heart to somebody and nothing will stop that. The whole team had been struck a hard blow when Colonel Carter informed them about Susan's death after the three Sheppards had left for Earth. And while that was going on, SGA2 had been stuck with ferring around scientists and civilans, something the three men didn't relish.

**A/N: So that's the end of Chapter fourteen. I wanted to post this earlier than usual because of a trip I was going to take over the weekend and I wanted to be nice and not leave you all without an update this week.**


	15. Leaving Atlantis

_**Chapter Fifteen**_

**Leaving Atlantis**

_A/N: This was inspired by the picture by Mithgariel for a tales of Atlantis on . I have put the link on my profile page, so if you would like to look at that, you can. It's the same title as on another note, this chapter starts out like a memory slash dream many years before Flanna. So sorry about the confusion, it's to clarify several things in latter chapters._

It was a cold and dreary day, when the plains around the stargate started to flood. The water lapped at the base of the mountains, several hundred miles away. A dark almost broken down pier lay close by the now active Stargate. It marked where the river once flowed, but the river had left the riverbed. Over the blue mountains, you could see the Ancestral city of Atlantis lifting above the clouds, rising from the flooded valley where it had sat for hundreds of years, undisturbed.

The Stargate sat active, at the end of a stone path. The ones that you could find in the gardens of castles. Metal vases or decorations stood placed on the stone wall, the water lapping at their bases. A woman, walked slowly towards the water like subsance in the Gate, the wind whipping her light red tresses. You could not see it but, the woman had tears falling down her face as she took the several steps to leave her home. The woman stood like a queen, for that's what she was. The Queen of Atlantis, her name was something unpronounceable in English, but to the Tar'i in Atlantis, she was simply Linda Sheppard, their Guarden Angel.

Linda wore a red gown, who's trail floated on the water behind her, leaving water lily's in her wake, as she held a white plant. You could not tell what made this scene so sad, yet so beautiful, but it held a somberness that you couldn't find anywhere else. Who knew that even the Atlerra didn't have the power to stop the oceans? The clouds covered the sky, adding to the somberness of the the moment.

Linda didn't know what the future would hold because her people were hunted throughout the entire galaxies. A scientist had realized that with the energy of the Ascended beings, he could rule this whole Universe. The city of the Alterra was in his command now and Linda was the only one of her kind left. She had sent her daughters ahead of her, keeping them safe for the destiny ahead of them, but for their mother? She had a different path, and now it was coming to a close. The moment she would step through the event horizon, she would not know anything. She could end up in any kind of Universe, whether better or worse then this one she didn't know. What she did know made her step forward into the event horizon and never look back at the place she had called home for decades.

**SGA**

Yellow Fox turned his mount in the direction of the giant white flash that he had just seen. He had been on his way to rejoin his people in their new hunting grounds when he had spotted it. It being the white flash that reminded him of the tales of Spirits coming to warn or enlighten his people.

Entering the clearing where he first saw the light, Yellow Fox came face to face with a woman.

Her hair glistened with spray of water and her red dress made it difficult to walk in. Her blue eyes widened in fear at the sight of Yellow Fox, her hand clutching the crystal that hung around her neck.

"What do you want?" She asked, backing away from the man.

"I have come to see why you have grace my people with your presence, Warrior of Doom." He stated, dismounting from his prized stallion.

"I do not bring doom, young warrior." She stated, trying to slip into the forest and loose him. Something about the man warned her against telling him her real story.

"Than what has brought a a beautiful Spirit like yourself to me?" Yellow Fox asked, hold his arms out wide.

The woman stared at the man, picturing two young girls laughing beside a man with messy hair. That was what had brought her quickly through the stargate, the memory of that one birthday kept her going from day to day.

"I search for two young girls and a man, one with hair that looks like the fire in front of the tents. The other looks more like her father, with hair darker than the midnight color of the sky when a warrior is counting coup. And the man has hair similar to a porcupine."

Yellow Fox stared at the woman, how did she know about the girls that had come to his people many moons ago? The red one had a fiery temper to match her hair, while the black haired one always lurked in her sister's shadows. They had driven the two of them from their planet when strange started to happen.

"You speak of the strange were banded from my people many moons ago when strange things started to happen. They and the ones who follow such art are not welcome here!" Yellow Fox proclaimed loudly.

The woman stopped moving backwards, her eyes flashing the bluest color that he had ever saw.

"You hold your tongue, Rash Warrior. They only bring the Others wrath because of the oldest prophecy in exstinace. They are also daughters of Atlantis, fabled warriors that fight the Evil Ones."

**SGA**

Linda sat straight up, her hands clutching at the covers. Realizing that she was perfectly safe in her room alone, she started to calm down running her fingers through her knee length red hair. She felt as if her latest dream wasn't a dream but a memory of her past life, one that she knew nothing about. She saw the ring of the Ancestors and a city lifting above the clouds. She herself was in that picture too, wearing a red silk dress that trailed behind her. She was unused to seeing such fine material, compared to the day to day life of the home spun wool that she was given in trade for healing somebody.

A knock sounded at her door, causing Linda to get out from beneath the covers and pull on a dressing gown. Tying the strings together as she hurried through the house, yelling at the person to wait a second.

Opening the door, Linda came face to face with another human being, one with hair the color of coal and the person wore a hood covering her face and figure.

"Yes...?" Linda asked warily to the unknown person.

"Are you Linda Sheppard?" A feminine voice asked, as she kept her hands tucked inside the sleeves of her cloak.

"I am. Do you need a healer?" Linda asked, getting a scared feeling in her stomach.

"No, I only need Linda Sheppard, forgotten queen of the Ancestors." The woman pulled the hood off her face, exposing her bright green eyes made even more brought by the color of her dark gypsy colored skin. "I was sent to do something for my people."

"Hold that thought. Why are you here and why are you doing the cloak and dagger thing?" Linda asked, getting a very bad horrible no good terrible feeling in her stomach. What ever this woman wanted it was not good.

"This." The stranger said, pulling out her hands from her sleeves and throwing a large fiery ball of light at Linda. Linda stared in dread as the light enveloped her and disappeared, leaving in her place a large red German Shepard, laying on the floor.

"I wish the party could have gone on longer, my dear queen, but I have unfinished business in the Milky Way." She said, pulling the hood over her head and snapping her fingers once.

**SGA**

**Many years later**

Evan Lorne walked with his two old team mates, not wanting to know their latest replacement for Susan. Whoever it was, he had promised himself, they probably won't last as long as Juliet did.

Entering the armory he came face to face with a long brown haired blue eyed beauty. Her hair was pulled into a single thick pony tail down her back, reaching to the middle of her shoulder blades.

"Are you Major Lorne?" She asked, holstering her pistol after checking the load in it.

"And you are...?" Evan asked, watching her movements.

"Major Briana Foxely." She told him, hold out her hand.

"I thought Stackhouse was being assigned to us." Reed interrupted, not catching the similarities in Briana and their old partner.

"Well he's in the infirmary with the Pegasus Flu. I got the short end of the straw, you could say." Briana told him, her eyes starting to dance with humor.

"And you excel in what, exactly?" Coughling asked, not exactly sure of the latest newbie.

"I put in almost three years in Special Ops, three months fighting in the Gulf war, fought Anubis over Antarctica. That good enough for ya Lieutenant or do we have to arm wrestle?" She asked, hands on her hips.

"That's enough drilling the major, Jake. Let's see how she does in the real world." Reed told his friend, clapping him on the shoulder as he left the room.

Major Briana shook her head, grabbing her tac vest and heading out the door after the three men. She knew right then and their that getting the men to fully understand her, she would have to prove her worth just like she did when visiting her cousins on her mom's side.

**SGA**

Lorne entered the village that was a good walk away from the Stargate. Having never been here before, he didn't know what to expect. Coughling and Reed stood beside him on one side as Major Briana Foxely stood a little behind him on his other side.

Briana watched as an old man headed towards their position. She guessed that he was in charge.

"Are you here for the offering?" He asked, his hands together as he bowed to them.

"What offering?" Evan asked as Briana tried to communicate to him silently.

"A pun this day, our Great Ruler chooses a wife from all the women in the village." The old man told him, before inclining his head towards Briana. "Sense you have a woman with you, I thought you had brought her to be chosen, perhaps in hopes of creating a permanent alliance with our Great Ruler?"

"Ah, she's not here to be wed to your Great Ruler." Evan told him, trying to be peaceful about it.

"That's a pity, because the Great Ruler foretold your coming and the woman that travels with you will become the Ruler of men." The old man inclined his head and several armed guards stepped into the open. Seeing the armed men, Evan and his people raised their weapons in peperation of a fight.

"Now, we don't wish to hurt anyone but she stays with us." Evan told him, trying once last chance to sway his mind.

"Also another pity, because the Great Ruler has promised a million franks to any man that brings his raven haired princess to him." The old man told the men as Briana was seized by a man.

"Oh, this is starting to look a whole like my nineteenth birthday." Briana said angrily as she flipped one man that held her to the ground on his back, while kicking the one that was coming behind her in the knee.

"How'd that turn out, anyway?" Reed asked, firing a bullet into another guard.

"Terrible. The cops arrested my cousins and me for being unusually obnoxious." Briana replied, breaking another man's nose and ramming her elbow backwards. "Sheppard was madder than a jackrabbit in June when he woke up and found his wallet pick pocketed by me."

"Come on, we need to get out of here." Reed told her, grabbing Briana's elbow as Evan and Jake covered for them.

She grabbed onto Reed's arm, as the two sprinted towards the gate. Briana started to pull ahead of Reed several yards after running. She could hear the others coming behind her, not wanting to get turned into a trophy wife, she put on more speed.

**SGA**

Carter watched as Lorne's team came running through the stargate once more. She took another glance as the four of them started to laugh as they leaned on their knees. Turning to the woman beside her, she asked. "Are you sure that they are sound for duty, Claire?"

"Perfectly. Just because their laughing doesn't mean anything. They were cleared weeks ago." Claire Dawson told her commanding officer, flipping trough her ever present notebook.

"They are laughing after being chased through the gate by heavily armed villagers. That doesn't sound quite normal to me." Sam told her, clapping a technician on the shoulder.

"It may be their way of saying that Major Foxely is what they were looking for. Or it could mean that they got the Pegasus version of Laughing gas, but I'm pretty sure the first one is correct." She told her, pushing up her ever present glasses.

"Well, seeing how they haven't been this happy in two months, I'll leave it be." Sam finally decided, before walking into her office.

**SGA**

Cyntha looked around herself as JD opened the door to his apartment. This was not what she was expecting. A single wall was filled to the max with tacked papers and star charts, above the computer buried desk.

"You planning on solving every petty crime there is?" She finally asked, setting her bag down on the neon orange lumpy couch.

"Funny, no that's just for my official career, I'm an astronomer, when I'm not working as a Science teacher." He told her, moving several stacks of papers.

"huh, sounds like you watch a lot of Indiana Jones." Cyntha told him, pulling out a sword to polish it.

"You always carry weapons like that?" JD asked, from behind her.

"I only brought my spy gear, the heavy military issued stuff is still in Atlantis. Dad would've have known what I was planning if I had brought them." Cyntha told him, setting a Swiss army knife on JD's coffee table.

"So this is normal, right?" JD finally asked, watching the expert handling.

"Only when I need to find and protect my family." She told him. "I'm leaving in the morning at o' six hundred, with or without you."

"I'll be sure to be up then." JD told her, heading for his bedroom. "Oh, one last thing. The bathroom's through the kitchen." he told her, pointing in the direction behind Cyntha.

"I figured that was where it was." She told him, not looking up from her weapon cleaning.

**SGA**

"What do you know?" A stern faced solider asked, Clarrisa as he leaned on the table in front off her.

"I do know that I awoke in Russia injured by a bomb going off. I know I need to find Major Evan Lorne, he's the only key to my past that I actually remember." Clarissa told him, not intimated by the long shadows in the room.

"What branch of the military does he work in?" The solider asked, writing down the name and rank that she gave him.

"He once fly in the Silver Spurs, I remember that. So Air Force, just as my dad." She told him, hands in her hair.

"What's your father's name and rank, that you remember." The solider started to realize that she truly wasn't faking her amnesia.

"Ahhh, Sheppard...Colonel Sheppard." Clarrisa told him, like a light bulb had gone off in her head. "My mother's name is Nancy Sheppard, she works as the director of security in the Pentagon." Turning to the general in front of her, she smiled brightly.

"I remember! I remember parts of my past." She talked quickly to the solider. "My name is Susan Teryl Sheppard, Lieutenant in the Air Force. My superior is Brigadier General Jack O'Neill stationed at..." Susan clutched her head trying to remember the last bit.

"Stationed where, Lieutenant?" The solider asked, scribbling quickly.

"I can't remember." Susan told him, her head in her hands as she desperately tried to remember all of her past.

"All right, I think this can get the wheel rolling anyway. Doc said when it does come back it might be in fragments."


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

**Overcoming your Fears.**

**A/N:** I have said I won't update, but for November 50k words is 50k words, so here's a chapter, bringing us once again closer to the end.

Flanna gritted her teeth and put her arms on the edge of the hole that she was currently trying to get out of, it was more of a crater anyway. Pulling herself upwards was easy, the hard part was getting out of the thousands of guards surrounding her with triple barrel shotguns pointed at her.

"This just isn't my day is it?" She asked, raising her arms slowly.

"You've had your Test of Eachann and didn't complete all of it. Now I will have those artifacts from you." Weyin told her, holding out his hand.

"You will get them when the Wraith are all dead, Weyin." Flanna snarled at him, pulling out one of her many weapons. After the first test had been completed, which she figured out quite quickly, they had transported back to Sateda and Flanna had changed her clothes. She was not getting caught in a dress when the rest of the tests were Strength, Stamina, and intellect.

"Thought you got yourself killed on that first test, Weyin. I would think that you of all people couldn't have completed the test before getting killed." Flanna told him, crossing her arms, buying herself some time.

"It was quite simple really. All the tests are based on the mythology of the Ancestors. As for staying alive, I know how you pathetic people think." Weyin was unprepared for Flanna launching herself at him and holding a knife to his throat, he was even more surprised by the fact that none of the guards had stopped her.

"Weyin, the only reason nobody has ever thought of a revolt is because you are a backstabbing, good-for-nothing, Son of a motherless GOAT!" She yelled at him, flipping a knife out and holding it against his neck.

**SGA**

Cyntha fiddled with the lock a little more, as JD hissed at her to hurry it up. A couple seconds later, the tumblers clicked open, letting the two of them into the office. Spotting the only computer terminal in the room, she headed that way, planning on hacking into it.

"You sure you can get this to work without getting caught?" JD asked, closing the door and getting an escape route in his head.

"Hello?" Cyntha told him, tapping rapidly. "I've been trained by the best of the best. Besides I do this type of thing all the time. Carter eventually had to lock all the computers with a level ten security code on the really important stuff."

"Just get what you need to get and let's go." JD told her, looking through some window blinds. "I don't want to be here any longer then necessary."

"We won't. Done." Cyntha told him, reading the screen quickly. "Trust?! What the hell is the Trust going after my sister?" She asked, typing furiously.

"How long is this going to take?" JD asked, still watching the exits.

"Almost done, just let me find the location where they had her and let this rewrite itself." Cyntha told him, trying to get past the many levels of encoding.

**SGA**

Bridget stood in the doorway of her sister's room, holding a piece of paper, but not seeing anything. She was thinking about where her sister was going.

"Bridget?" Her grandfather's deep voice came from behind her, questioning.

"Cyntha left this." Bridget handed him the page, heading for her room and solitude it offered.

The note read-

_I know where Susan is. Do not try and follow me, Bridget. My trail is too well covered and I have the best helping me. Stay safe, I'll be back with Susan and Dad soon enough._

_-Cyntha._

Her name was scrawled with her sister's chicken scratching called writing. Bridget only hoped that she knew what she was doing. They had traveled to many dangerous planets before but Earth was the one that was always testing their worth, somehow. Knowing who would help her the most, Bridget dug through her bag, searching for the extra cell phone that Jack had given her.

"General?" She spoke, packing her bags and getting ready to leave the Farm. "Cyntha is missing, said she was going to get Susan, that means that she's enlisting your clone's help." Hearing his reply, Bridget started to frown. "General, listen to me very closely. Cyntha has left, she's taken all of her spy gear and said she was enlisting the help of the best. Assuming that she hacked into the SGC's computer system, she's heading for the Pentagon and those computers. I know how my sister operates, because she was trained by the best, it'll take someone who actually knows what to expect to track her."

**SGA**

Just because her memory was almost intact didn't mean that Susan didn't feel regret over several things. When she was acting like a diplomat, she enjoyed it, not as much as the flying that she got to do, but she enjoyed trading verbal barbs with people. Debate class was one of her favorites in High School, she didn't remember why she had joined the Air Force over it. But looking backwards, she knew that the Air Force had played a great enormity in her life, she reunited with her family, met Evan, and landed in the Stargate Program. But she knew that part of her life was over now, the only way to be with Evan was to give up the military and fall back onto her other talents. Take math, she was quite good with it and even passed the MENSA Test and then there was her numerous degrees in Archeology, and a couple other subjects.

She walked through the base, glad that she was in a warm climate then Russia. She hated the cold, and didn't understand why she was living in one of the coldest places on Earth.

"Hey, this seat taken?" A female voice asked.

Looking up, Susan was confronted with hazel eyes and thick black hair.

"Sure, I was about to leave anyway." Susan told her, gathering the scattered pages and standing up.

"No need for you to do that, I'll enjoy your company." The woman told her. "I'm Pamela."

"Susan Sheppard, nice to meet you." Susan told her, sitting back down in the chair opposite Pamela.

"You're the one everyone is talking about. The one that almost out flew us Silver Spurs like you knew our every move before we did." Pamela commented, starting to dig into her food.

"I don't remember how I would, unless..." It starting to dawn on the other woman, knowing that she had in fact known their moves before they did. "How could I bloody miss that?" Grabbing a piece of paper from her stack, she pulled a pen from her BDUs(battle dress uniform) and started to scribble.

"Miss what?" Pamela asked, as Susan wrote things horridly down.

"Evan Lorne. He was the Second in Command at the base where I was stationed at before, because I worked closely to him, one of the things we discussed was tactics that we used in situations."

"Andddd...?" Pamela asked, knowing where this was going but wanting to help Susan remember the whole memory.

"He told me that he once was captain of the Silver Spurs, I knew your moves before you did, because of hours of conversing with Evan. Don't you see? If I could remember that like second nature, what else do I know but don't remember doing?"

"I remember a Captain Lorne. He was transferred shortly after I joined the Spurs." Pamela told her, remembering her old commanding officer. "Is he about five feet nine inches, brown hair with kinda hazel eyes?"

"That's him. That was the first thing I remembered when I was in Russia." Susan told her, finishing the sketch that she carried around. It was the first picture she drew when she started to get dreams about her past.

**SGA**

Jack scowled, watching as the security cameras fizzled and then cut out, but before they did, he saw two things that made him positive that Bridget had been right. One was the fact that those cameras didn't short out like that if someone hadn't been messing with them. The second thing was that he was positive that one of the two people snooping around had been his clone. But he had to admit, Cyntha was good. They wouldn't have found her if Bridget hadn't given them an idea of what to look for.

"Sergeant, I want teams moved out and aberhand those two, if I'm going to get any peace around here, we better have the Colonel's kids safe and sound, that means a cell if necessary." O'Neill told the balding staff Sergeant beside him.

"Yes sir. What about the one already here, sir?" Walter asked, pushing glasses up his nose.

"Bridget has been helpful so far, I don't see why she wouldn't be any longer. Minimal guard so that she doesn't get lost and let her wander, but don't let her near the restricted areas."

"Aye sir."

**SGA**

Cyntha closed the computer, slipping the notebook that she copied everything down on, into her bag, leaving the room behind JD. As the two exited the building, several military personnel stepped into the streetlights' glow. Not recognizing anyone, Cyntha started to run towards the road and freedom, knowing that with years of track and running from Wraith, not many people could catch her. As she ran, Cyntha felt something like a taser hit her in the back, making her muscles contract and she fell to the ground in pain. Knowing that it wasn't a taser but a Gou'ald zat, Cyntha knew either General O'Neill had found her or the Trust did. She only hoped that Bridget was still not in the hands of the Trust.

She awoke in a hospital bed in a concrete room. Recognizing it as the one in the Stargate Command, she relaxed, knowing that General O'Neill would understand why she had done what she had done. She could only hope that the man had also read the forty-two reasons on where Susan was. The only reason her sister hadn't made it back to Cheyenne was because of the induced amnesia that she had. If she was no longer in the Russian Hospital, then she wouldn't have any reason to not remember unless it was a side-affect of the pills.

"Cyntha Rose Sheppard." Bridget's voice came from the end of her bed. Cyntha knew that tone of voice so well that she had memorized the words that Bridget was about to speak to her. "You are in so much trouble when Dad finds out what you did. You know that Mom and Dad have always told you not to use your gifts unless you absolutely had to do."

"This was a had to, little sister. Sit yourself down in that chair and I'll tell you what I found out." Cyntha raised herself to a sitting position and noticed the small brown and white lump on the end of her bed. "Bridget...?"

"Oh that's just Misty I found her in the mist when I was heading towards the bus stop." Bridget told her sheepishly.

"Bridget! You know we can't have pets in Atlantis. Dad will freak out when he sees her." Cyntha told her, trying not to break her sister's heart, but Bridget would bring every single stray home and then what would happen to Atlantis?

"You try telling that to her." Bridget nodded her head at Misty. "I spent a day and a half trying to get rid of her, Misty is coming whether we like it or not. Besides she's only a puppy."

"She can stay until Dad can tell you otherwise." Cyntha swung her legs over the edge of the bed, intending to get up and find the General. "But you're the one house training her."

"Already done." Bridget smiled proudly when seeing the surprised look in her sister's eyes.

"Aren't you two supposed to be on Vacation?" Jack stood in the doorway, watching the two sisters play with the brown and white puppy on the bed.

"General, I sure hope you read that notebook that I have." Cyntha told him, noticing the older man for the first time.

"Done and done. Several of my best people are working on tracking down your father and sister. They should be back with news in about a day or so if there is no problems." Jack told her smoothly, expecting that answer.


End file.
